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    Arc of the Poet: A Poetic Memoir
    Arc of the Poet: A Poetic Memoir
    Arc of the Poet: A Poetic Memoir
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    Arc of the Poet: A Poetic Memoir

    By Roger Darnell

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    About this ebook

    With these words, Lila Ridings-Darnell moved her second kid to pursue his life's calling: "I write, and Dad wrote, but I think you're the one who's going to do something with it." After taking aim as an adolescent, at age 44, the author began compiling this poetic memoir to document his progress creatively. Connecting with global legends of entertainment, business, and literature on his journey in the film and TV trades, Roger's focus intensifies as his setbacks, near-misses, and moonshots add up. His illuminating existential payoffs are sure to inspire everyone who dares to dream big.

     

    "For anyone who's ever doubted themselves or questioned their purpose in life, Roger reminds us of just how far the discipline of tenacity can take you. His journey is one of constant discovery, vulnerability, and being shared through tender prose and stories of a life richly lived." --Michele Kumar, CEO, Priya PR, Inc.

     

    "Our dreams rarely look the way we thought they would. Roger shows us a beautiful example of honoring, embracing, nurturing, and celebrating the dream that is." --Joan Zimmerman, MA, LMFT

     

    "For those who are staking out their own journeys in the creative-industrial complex, this book is for you. Roger shows how someone with the soul of an artist can successfully and confidently navigate that world, and at the same time displays his own considerable artistic talents. The book also shows another side of the 'industry' -- one that includes people who care very much about art and soul, who respect and highly appreciate the extraordinary courage of poets and artists everywhere." --Dr. John Minbiole, Assistant Teaching Professor, Penn State University 

     

    As eloquently explained by the author's high school drama teacher Leslie "Jinx" Caulfield, life is temporary, "and details become more beautiful and profound when viewed through the eyes of a poet." In this poetic memoir, an adept writer deftly relates his life journey, where poetry arose within him first as a means of connecting with his mother, then served him well in shaping his adult life, and growing. At key points, he has felt he could become famous, and accomplish all his personal ambitions, through poetry. Time will tell.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDW Books
    Release dateOct 31, 2022
    ISBN9798987010822
    Arc of the Poet: A Poetic Memoir

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      Book preview

      Arc of the Poet - Roger Darnell

      dedication

      To aiming high, stopping to smell the flowers, and sharing the gifts of life with loved ones and others we meet along the way.

      Dedicated to my better half Beth Darnell; my brother, daughter, and son; all our wonderful family members and friends; and to all the illustrious clients of The Darnell Works Agency, past and present.

      I also wish to thank some of the many people who have reshaped my world through their kindness, support, and generosity. In addition to those already named, I am also eternally grateful to Leslie Jinx Caulfield, Alice Wright, Susana Crofton, Mike Sullivan, Giles Hoglin, Keith Fowles, Bob Davis, R. Scott Horner, Eric Dentel, Gay Henderson, Jay Lerew, Randy Baker, Pamela Tuscany, Arthur Gross, Bruce Merwin, Dwayne Shattuck, Mathew Hayden, Hardy Edwards, Bob Storer, Zoe Iltsopoulos Borys, Connie Swanson, Mitch Mentor, Billy Mead, Gina Schifano, Boris Malden, Steve Beers, Leslie Stevens, Patrick Hasburgh, Clifton Campbell, Michael Ironside, Kacy Palmieri, Mike Vu, Dick Wilson, John Melfi, Graham Yost, Tom Hanks, Amy McKenzie, Christopher Cowen, John Walker, Ron Stein, Tim Street, Ted Schilowitz, Lisa Cleff-Kurtz, Mike Garfinkel, Michael Terpin, Will Travis, Ric Peralta, Simon Needham, Angus Wall, Jake Banks, Jay Armitage, Judy Wolff, Erin Sarofsky, Brad Tucker, Craig Duncan, Finnerty Steeves, Elizabeth Krajewski, Helena Bouchez, and all the other producers, cast, and crew members of Fortune Hunter, seaQuest 2032, and From the Earth to the Moon.

      Cover Photos: Pixabay, Renee Fisher, and Roger Darnell

      Book Formatting: Lori S Malkin Design, LLC

      Arc of the Poet

      Copyright © 2022 by Roger Darnell

      All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

      For information address Darnell Works, Inc.: http://www.rkdarnell.com

      Cover design by 100Covers.com

      Book design by Roger Darnell

      ISBN-13: 979-8-9870108-2-2

      First Edition: August 2022

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Foreword

      Leslie Jinx Caulfield

      One of the greatest rewards a teacher can achieve is watching a former student achieve his or her own great accomplishments. I taught drama, theatre and related subjects for over 30 years at the high school and college levels. For a lot of high school boys, the drama club and activities just weren’t cool so it wasn’t often I was able to coax a talented, good looking leading man type into the fold. One thing I remember about Roger was that he was confident enough in himself that he rarely, if ever, depended on others to gauge his coolness; he was too busy soaking up arts and literature. And while I spent my high school years trying to impress anyone, Roger’s ambivalence and refusal to conform to teen herd mentality impressed everyone.

      Roger’s Arc of the Poet book is, to me, reminiscent of several first person accounts that chronicle the ups and downs, the trials and tribulations, the day to day struggle to carve out and maintain a wonderful joyous family life while never taking one’s eye off of the promised dream/goal; a goal seemingly always just centimeters beyond our grasp. For many of us the struggle is real. Roger is undoubtedly the Little Engine That Could. It is often so much easier to quit swimming upstream past the sharp rocks and bears and instead slide back down into the relative calm of the familiar river below with its quiet eddies and peaceful pools.

      Roger’s prose flows easily throughout. His poetry is purposeful and imaginative. There is even a wonderful exercise for budding and advanced poets and writers. Roger calls it Ramble. Kerouac talks about life on the road and leaving friends behind for new adventures. He describes this experience as looking in the rearview mirror as he pulls away and everyone getting smaller and smaller until they disappear and it’s time to look forward again. Ramble is a bit like that and Roger’s writings remind me that life is temporary as are all things—and details become more beautiful and profound when viewed through the eyes of a poet.

      June, 2022

      Winter Park, Florida

      1

      Life Poetry

      First published: February 22, 2011

      TO BE PERFECTLY HONEST, I’m not sure that I’m capable of summarizing my childhood in just a few lines, but I do want to paint enough of a picture here to be able to show the ways poetry factored into my early life and came to be something I saw as my ticket to success. Here goes.

      Like all kids of the late 1960s, I was exposed early and often to Dr. Seuss, and those fantastic rhymes of his really made deep impressions on me. However, there were other rhymes my older brother and I were exposed to, which had accompanied my mother’s upbringing in a rural setting in Southern Illinois, at the hands of her Tennessee-born parents. From early ages, we heard this favorite time and again, inspiring our many adventures in the woods, and framing them in our minds.

      Out in the forest there’s a great big tree

      with a hole in the middle that just fits me

      so I climb inside and pretend I’m a bear

      and I growl and I grumble and I rumble there.

      Mom also performed a special version of Humpty Dumpty, where we’d sit on her knees until she’d get to the fall, when she’d (gently) let us tumble to the ground, and finish the rhyme with a smiling flourish, and a big tickle.

      For my older brother Scott and me, our early years involved a lot of moving. Although we nearly always returned to Greenville, Illinois, within a matter of months, we would head off to somewhere else, as our industrious dad pursued new career opportunities.

      Whenever Dad was around, our family seemed to do pretty well together. We had many adventures, usually involving boats and bodies of water. Unfortunately, his career always seemed to keep him away from home, and eventually, Mom realized she just wasn’t happy. Looking back, she often seemed to be writing during those evenings, using a typewriter she brought home. After her own father passed away, her marital commitment to our dad dissolved. Her administrative skills were soon sharp enough to put her back to work on her own. I was eight and Scott was 10 when we learned about divorce firsthand . . . and in the days that followed, living in St. Cloud, Florida, my mother refashioned

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