Earl Schumacker – An Introduction
This is an introduction into the literary world and works of Earl Schumacker. It is my views as they specifically relate to poetry. I have been working at my craft for over 50 years. Some distractions like, work and school have taken me off track along the way but I always fall back on my one solid foundation in reality. My best works are found in my short stories, articles and my novel, “Sanctuary” which is near completion.
I firmly believe that the poet and the poem are two different things. They exist apart from each other. The poet or author has tools to create things that did not exist before. Their creation stands alone as a separate entity, a slice of life; a capsule of philosophy, a ghost, and much much more.
In the past, the poet was coupled with his creation. I do not subscribe to that idea. An example might be; Edgar Allen Poe took drugs. People think that he was on drugs while writing. That is a false conclusion. Poe was a clear thinking, lucid, well rounded writer who wrote when and while he was sober. He had a cruel life. That point is true. His writing however, takes on a life of its own, above and beyond the man.
Poems are like children. You create them. You shape them. You give them love or hate or whatever human elements you want to add or subtract in forming them. In the end, they take on their own life and live on with their own merits.
It is important for me as a writer to remove myself, that is, my actual self from the equation and from my works. For example; I can take on the persona of a little girl or a wild animal or an old man living a hermit’s life, or an android. I have no fear to say or do anything and everything in my works. The beauty of poetry is that you are free to do or say or think anything you want. There are no limits. As for rules…forget about it…. I shape them into snowflakes and line them up one by one to be shot or into atoms with too few quarks, or into distant stars and serve them up on buttered bread at breakfast.
Once a poem is created, there is no sending it back. It grows in the dark. It shines in the sky. They have children of their own with extended fingers stretching into the universe to find the pulse of the void. It does not matter that I wrote the poems that I wrote. What is important is the fact that they are out there doing their work to entertain, provoke thought, enlighten, generate fear, cause laughter, and do the things that entities do. Sometimes they have been known to tell the truth. Enjoy them at your leisure.
Thank you for your attention.
Earl Schumacker- Author