Greetings,
I am Tracy Mitchell. I have appeared on other sites as Tom, Tom 10, Tom 9, Teagan, Ted Ten and my former favorite–Royal Thorn 79.
I grew up listening to my Dad read poetry. I got my own copy of A Hundred and One Famous Poems for Christmas. From this book I had to memorize and recite at the instance of my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade teachers. I recall The Village Smithy, Sheridan’s Ride, The Charge of the Light Brigade and Crossing the Bar.
In college I took a poetry class from a black-haired, mustachioed recent graduate from NYC College. He brought to our small Midwest university the works of Syvia Plath, ee cummings, Denise Levertov, Mark Strand, Kenneth Patchen, Gregory Corso, and Kenneth Koch. The book list from that class still forms the heart of my poetry collection. It was perfect timing–I was open and receptive to this new kind of poetry. I thereafter became a reader of poetry, for the next forty years. I wrote very little, maybe a poem or two a year–all of it crappy, including the 1976 opus, A Bicentennial Bourgeois Blues Balad, which was perhaps my apex of crap.
Then, 12 years ago, I discovered online poetry sites and decided that I would make an effort to get better as a writer. I started writing regularly and felt like I was starting to learn some of the craft. I feel like over the years I got better at dodging the traps, the cliches, and the potholes. The big thing is that I very much enjoyed the writing, and that sense has grown immensely over the years. I haven’t really fallen in love with my poems, but I certainly have with the process of writing. I stumbled on the University of Michigan Poets on Poetry Series. What an incredible resource. I highly recommend it to anyone who reads.
I have been blessed with incredible writing mentors–initially Linda (Indar) and Siobhan McKinney. Most recently Von Neeld and Marcel Duclos. And I can’t find the words to express how beneficial it has been to write as part of the marvelous group of writers at TTB
My favorite poets include William Stafford, Robert Bly, Jane Kenyon, James Arlington Wright, Thomas Hennen, Wendell Berry, Norita Dittberner-Jax, Willilam Pit Root, and sometimes Mary Oliver and Sharon Olds. But to be honest I am most regularly moved by the writings of the excellent poets who post at The Tangled Branch and continually consider myself blessed for the opportunity.
Since leaving home I have lived in 16 different abodes and held 21 different jobs. I have had one wife, two children, four grandchildren, three dogs, a barn-full of cats, and an uncounted number of wonderfully productive vegetable gardens.
That’s all I got.
Tracy
I think that’s more than enough!
… and think 
. Good stuff. Thanks for the invite … and for the background on how you landed as a writer and poet.