Joy Marcus

When I Grow Up
by Joy Marcus

 “The most interesting people I’ve met don’t know what they want to be when they grow up, until the age of about 50.” Words to that effect were written by A.S. Neill in his seminal book, Summerhill.

 From a very young age (9-ish, maybe) I saw myself as a poet. In my teens and early 20’s in Chicago I made poems (all the while working at “jobs” to support myself). I hung out with poets, took poetry workshops with Pulitzer Prize winner Gwendolyn Brooks at Columbia College. I learned so much from her and felt incredibly lucky to be one of her students. During that time I went to readings – to listen and learn, and to read some of my own poems.

 When I moved to San Francisco, 9/1/67, I vowed to never again work a 40-hour week. My life would be devoted to my craft, my art. What did I know?

 In the beginning of my California life I landed a part-time job as a secretary, working for architects. After that, I got a job as a chamber maid and waitress, in exchange for food and lodging, at a ski resort in the high Sierra.  That was full-time.  And, for decades-worth of numerous “jobs” that mountain adventure marked the end of my half-time fantasy.

 But the good news is that for a year I had a 40-hour week in Berkeley, at University of California Press. That gig allowed me to continue to pursue my life as a poet. While working at Berkeley, I was allowed to audit a couple of poetry classes - one taught by Bob Grenier, the other by Richard Tillinghast, both of them fine poets.

 Only, everyday life intervened – over and over and over again.

Painfully, I discovered our society doesn’t really support poets and artists.

 Nevertheless, I managed to write within the interstices of my young life. I read, I wrote, I published, I gave public poetry readings. I even managed to self-publish a book of poems - subsidized by Fred Cody, a Berkeley bookseller-luminary - sharing the pages with Nacio Brown and his wonderful street photography. In addition, I was heavily involved in journalistic enterprises. (Please see my resume).

So, now what?  As of November 14, 2016 I will I have been a resident of this planet going on 75 years. Yet, it is not very interesting to me to talk about the past.

     I have always tended to be future-oriented. I like to see life as an experiment, an adventure. I plan to live until I’m 120 and I intend to leave the world in better shape than I found it.

 While my current plans have lead me to attend college for the first time (I'm slated to get my AA degree May 2016, expecting to transfer to San Francisco State) and I’m headed in the direction of becoming a freelance digital journalist, my parallel goal is to pursue the double bottom line: “do well, while doing good.”

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Resume and references on request