Born 1945, Chicago, U.S.A. Baseball, race riots, library books. Factory, warehouse, office jobs. Demonstrations against racial discrimination—in Mississippi, Missouri, & Chicago; & against continuing U.S. participation in the war in Indochina. Then teaching, then odd, odder, & not odd enough jobs across the U.S.A.
1974, Old Buzzard of No-Man’s Land, book of poems, Coach House Press, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
1977, Solid and Sound, vinyl LP album of songs, Tick Crick Records, Lee’s Summit, Missouri, U.S.A. (Click in Links menu, titled more yet, right-hand column—to listen on-line, courtesy of Inzane Studios, Michigan, U.S.A.)
1984 to 1994, silkscreened posters on rectangular scraps of cloth, & hitchhiked back & forth across the U.S.A., stapling 1500 to utility posts. Others posted some in public places in South America, Europe, Asia, & Australia, too.
The “signs” featured Solid and Sound face, plus sayings, e.g., “You’re like me in this respect, what you do has its effect,” “Seek truth, develop capacities,” “Help one another succeed,” & “Anxious to serve.” (Right: Frank Osowski displays sign at Axle at La Mama, Victoria, Australia; & sign posted by Jan Lif in Finland.)
Unable to earn, privately & intensely studied technologies & underlying sciences, accounting, & business methods—&, during the 90’s, found solo consulting assignments, doing technical research regarding, on one hand, obsolete industrial equipment involved in accidents, &, on the other, technical, commercial, & political aspects of Space exploration: rockets, space ports, satellites, sensors, transmitters, life-support systems, space stations, lunar bases, helium-3, etc.
1990, How To Change the World Forever For Better, brief book of philosophy, self-published; second edition 1994. (A few dozen copies left.)
This past decade, I’ve tried to grasp human history, near, far, long ago, recent. I try to integrate that with what I go out of my way to learn about present-day economics, commerce, & politics—& my own situation.
When younger, I studied literature, religion, psychology, sociology, & the arts, mainly, & now ingest them about as I do air, water, & food—taking care with quality & quantities. I attempt to process & use what I learn to my own advantage, & to the advantage of those willing & able to accept what I am enabled to deliver—not just to dodge injustice & normal madness, while feeding my predilection for gathering information & insights.
People I Met Hitchhiking On USA Highways: a few poems, but mostly prose narrative, 2001, Turnaround Artist Productions, De Pere, Wisconsin, U.S.A.—available from Amazon.com.
Eat Some, Plant Some
In November, 2007, I realized I could post Eat Some, Plant Some as a web-site, using an easy-to-use, nearly-free blog template for my own purposes. I love a great book, but a great poem, on-line, is good, too.
I had dozens of poems that had circulated only in obscure little magazines or on obscure web-sites around the world, or never at all—great poems, it seemed to me.
After decades, I had concluded that publishers of poetry magazines & books nearly universally favored poems I thought less than great—not so much in method, tho often so, but in content & point of view.
There were few poems being published, it seemed to me, that addressed the situation we find ourselves in today, & made progress (at least for the individual reader) possible, that, previously, was impossible.
I didn’t intend to fool around publishing less, & it seemed that poetry publishers, with rare exceptions, didn’t appreciate what I sent them. If what I sent them was the real thing, then what they were generally publishing was not the real thing. How could they welcome what I sent them?
Publishing books myself has been costly, & less than entirely satisfactory. Not only must I prepare the manuscript & cover, but find a printer & binder, pay for all production costs, then, as best I’m able, make the world aware that the book exists, & how they can get copies, without the cooperation of those who generally review books, let alone praise them. I had to be a publisher, distributor, & publicist. Daunting, but fair enough.
But publishing a book yourself is a lot like running for U.S.A. president without the support of major players in the Republican or Democratic parties, & without major funding: mostly, reporters, commentators, & editors can be expected to ignore or ridicule the project to death.
The only exception would be if the values you were manifesting were the values those in the media were longing for someone to express. But the reason I was writing was precisely because I was not finding what needed saying in the media.
If what I was publishing was the real thing, then what they were generally publishing was not the real thing. How could they welcome, praise, promote my work? How could they do anything but lack comprehension of what I was doing, or, to the extent they partially understood, hope for my failure?
There are wonderful exceptions, & I’m delighted, encouraged, & nourished when I encounter them, but the vast majority of the published poems I encounter seem to me essentially cleverness & fashion.
Since I encounter so many poems of that sort, I find myself, being clever & a writer of poetry, often creating such poems, or poems with those elements in them, the way a clever child will try on phrases that are not quite appropriate, or even lie or repeat lies—the temptations of clever language overwhelming the sense of truth & integrity.
When I find I have created such poems, or poems with such elements, I destroy them, or transmute them to something truer & more truly useful—a word which is ordinarily abused by those who insist that life be simpler, less surprising, & more easily managed than it is; & so, is generally unfortunately disdained by most who engage in poetry reading, writing, & publishing.
To the extent that I have here or elsewhere in the past, maybe, published such poems or poems with such elements, I’m sorry, & I hope to destroy or correct the misguided work.
Eat Some, Plant Some is meant to be accessible, immediately, to curious visitors who stumble upon it for whatever reason in cyber-bedlam—some of whom might be sufficiently impressed to return & read more than one poem thru. As well as to those who might seek my work out, entering my name in search engines, because of work I have previously done, that they appreciate, that makes them want more.
I want to prosper more & have more influence
I am trying to prosper more than I am prospering, while I am still alive, & also to have more influence than I am having. I want help—not help fitting into the way things are usually done—I have avoided doing that so far. But the price is prospering less than I hope to prosper, & having my work overshadowed by those who are more willing to fit into the way things are done in the various media industries, & in politics, education, the religions.
Tho it’s taken decades even for me to believe it, I am now actively competing with those in the various media industries, & in politics, education, & the religions—artists & spokespeople, & those behind the scenes, including those who command. (They’ve been competing with me, one another, & you, since before you or I were born.)
I am competing for resources & attention, & to have an impact on how the situation that involves us all evolves.
So far, I believe that it’s unlikely to seem worth the bother of anyone disproportionately powerful, if they’ve noticed me yet, to interfere with me—except the way they interfere with anyone who is small & competing: e.g., with unfavorable shipping rates, or by airing public mention only of the work of those with paid publicists who stroke their egos, or of those who personally grovel agreeably.
Most interference til now has come from the spite or negligence of small actors, links in supply chains, who don’t believe I’m doing anything special that will improve things for them, or whose egos are threatened by my standing out, in any way, beyond how they stand out.
I am attempting precisely to improve things for small actors, at least for those who will make similar, realistic attempts to un-do the terrible knots we’re involved in, & to create a better situation.
“WHAT
YOU DO
OR DON’T DO
& HOW
HAS ITS
EFFECT”
Billboard
along north-south
Interstate Highway 51,
Wisconsin, USA—
mid-1990’s.
Ordinary “success” is, as I see it, no success at all.
So it is not out of pride, I hope, that I say:
I am looking for extraordinary allies—extraordinary characters with extraordinary capacities. As I am not perfect, I don’t expect perfection.
But I think I am offering extraordinary products, & have developed an extraordinary ability to produce more (while my life lasts)—& I am looking for extraordinary people, at various stages of their various careers in the world the way it is, to work with.
I hope to hear from you.
Try, please, to tell me both how you hope to operate with more integrity than the way things are ordinarily done, & also how, at the same time, you hope to be truly effective! And why I can trust you not merely to try to gain at my expense.
Use of the poems
The poems are listed in the menu, top right. Periodically, I feature each of them on this page, too.
Before I run out of sufficient money or attention to keep this site on-line:
I hope you will, & you are hereby granted nonexclusive permission to use one or more of the poems (even all of them) from this site—unless your plan is to make money doing it.
In that case, make a deal with me. I need money, too.
In fact, be a patron, be a pal: send large amounts!
Contacting
I’d be pleased to receive thoughtful communications you can leave at Comments, below. Or call 1-920-532-4798. Or write:
Eric Chaet
1803 County Road ZZ
De Pere, Wisconsin 54115-9629
U.S.A.
