Name…Winston Willis
Where do you Live…New Jersey
Screen Name…Recentiy03
Origin of S/N…Back when I made the name, I used to be a
huge fan of the Dave Matthews Band, and the song
Recently is the 3rd song Dave wrote. As for why it’s an
uppercase i, not an l, don’t ask.
How long on-line…More than a decade.
How long in LNP…About a decade.
Age…29
Occupation…Paralegal
Education…Seton Hall, Creative Writing
We know Winston as Recentiy03 on aol.
He has been a
regular in the Late Night Poets Chat since about 2001. He
first discovered the room by chance when he was taking
poetry classes at the College of Charleston and thinks it
is an entertaining place to occasionally read good poetry.
Winston believes the LNP Poets are a quirky group, which
fits well with his own wide variety of interests and all
things strange. He looks forward to poems by a number of
posters and greatly appreciates the venue as a place to
read the work of others and share his own poems.
Few People know that he is interested in …
esoteric artsy movies and dubstep.
Favorite Author….George R.R. Martin
Favorite Book…Would I be cheating if I say the entire Song
of Ice and Fire series?
Favorite Poet…Billy Collins for the voice and Charles
Bukowski for the content
Winston Willis first remembers reading poetry back in high
school, and recalls quickly identifying with a number of
universal themes. Aside from an assortment of eclectic
interests, he says his actual inspiration and desire to start
writing poetry was due to a number of factors: 1) General
love of the English language–words, sounds, phrases and
the like—in addition to frequently reading whatever he
could get his hands on from an early age 2) His high school
girlfriend, about whom so many of my first poems were
written 3) His evolving perception of the world, being
deeply involved in western ideologies and meditation at an
early age 4) A combination of the foregoing, a lot of the
first poets He read were Walt Whitman, Lord Byron,
William Blake, and He’s always felt a connection to the
Romantic ideas that permeate their work; essentially it was
the same stuff He was reading regarding meditation and
finding a way to live in harmony with the world. Throw in
Jim Morrison and The Doors and in retrospect everything
seems to click.
The first poem He wrote was about none other than an
evolving state of consciousness, or a new way of looking at
the world, and it’s saved in a little red notebook He has
tucked away. While he says it’s not worth sharing, it’s
interesting how the content is clearly influenced by the
stuff He was reading around 1999.
His poetry can really be defined in two phases, and He
initially admittedly had absolutely no clue what he was
doing. He thinks that bears itself out quite well in the
product, the first phase lasting from about 1999-2003, out of
which there are a few readable poems, but most of which
are painfully cliché and trite.
He remembers early on he thought the experience of
writing was itself a lot like meditation, in that He often
felt like more of a proxy for pre-determined thoughts and
actions than a poet. In that regard, another powerful
influence on both his life and his writing was an Indian
guru named Osho; his idea on being self-aware and egoless
are clearly prevalent in his work and through the years
he’s sought new ways to express the same simple yet
universal topics-love, death, & duality.
After not writing very frequently from about 2004-2006, he
started writing again in 2007, and he’s been at it ever since.
His poetry has been published sporadically through the
years, although at the moment He is not currently seeking
to publish most of my poems.
He has some ideas for a book, but nothing is absolute and
connecting everything together is a lot of work. It’s
something he plans on doing in the future and perhaps
when he has a book under his belt he will once again
pursue publishing individual poems.
The most valuable lesson(s) /experience(s) re: his time in
LNP Winston says: he doesn’t know if it is directly
attributable to LNP, but he thinks it’s important to take a
moment to emphasize the process of writing, and moreover
the process of rewriting. Some of my poems have countless
drafts, and even though certain poems might feel quite
natural or fluid, it’s often the result of practice. He says
he knows it sounds cliché–eternal practice towards
perfection. Extrapolating that idea one step further,
there is a noticeable difference in his poems through the
years—he mentioned the two phases—and he’d like to
think they’ve gotten better, which is the direct result of
keeping at it. In fact, he thinks the same can be said for
most of the posters in LNP, many of whom he’s thoroughly
enjoyed watching continue to get better and better as a
result of collaborating and learning from one another.
You can read some of Winstons poetry at
Top 5 interests / hobbies outside of poetry…….
1)…Learning, being curious about everything, Google
2)…Music
3)…Foodball/sports
4)…Movies/Reality TV
5)…Beer
Favorite Sports/Teams…Yankees, Jets and Nets
Favorite Music/Band…This is a tough one since I
really love music. I listen to everything from jam music, to
rock, to rap, to electronic, to jazz, to country and
classical, however, jam music is my favorite, as I feel it ties
many of the above genres together. Music can be a very
transcendental and cathartic experience, and this is
especially true when the music is spontaneous or free-
form; it can really bring a person through a gauntlet of
emotions and I’ve long felt that the experience of
listening to music, and being lost in the music, is incredibly
selfless, which is very similar to the point behind
meditating.
Favorite current song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra9jXsHlgpI
Favorite Movie…Another tough one, or perhaps they’re all
tough since I’m just not very good at quantifying my
favorites, whether movies, music, food, or even women.
What I want to watch at 10 AM on a Sunday is not
necessarily the same as what I want to watch at 10 PM on a
Saturday, so it’s really just a matter of mood and
environment more than ultimate preference. That stated,
probably the most memorable movie I’ve seen in the past
few years was Aguirre: The Wrath of God, which is a
spectacular movie that was incidentally recommended by
one of my former poetry professors. I’ve since become a big
fan of Herzog’s documentaries. The most recent movie I’ve
seen is The Seventh Seal, which was also really cool—-
special thanks to St. Vincent (Annie Clark) for the
recommendation. Likewise, I really enjoy movies depicting
the medieval time period, especially when they invoke
religious undertones—Andrei Rublev, The Name of the
Rose. And fantasies, of course. Finally, it would be an epic
fail to omit Stanley Kubrick in this section.
Favorite Foods…I’m a rather picky eater, so I tend to stick
to meat and potatoes.
Favorite Place To Vacation …My mom works for Delta, so
I’ve been most fortunate with regards to traveling, as I
used to fly for free and can still occasionally fly on
discounted buddy passes. I recently got back from seeing
Italy and had an incredible time in Rome and Florence.
Favorite Poem…….Anthony by Chalres Bukowski
Anthony
.
and the hedges wet in the rain, flaking in a sheet of wind,
and for a moment everything working: rusty bells, April
birds, unblushing brides, anything you can name that has
not
died, so exactly, and even the wind like a lover’s hand,
a somehow important wind, something too like sleep or
slain enemies,
and the feet move through paths not restricted by the
bull-goaded mind,
and see–all and everywhere–hedges in the rain
like great cathedrals now, new Caesars, cats walking,
new gods without plug or wire, love without wasps,
new Christians, bulls, Romes, new new leaves, new rain
now splashing through the fire; and I close the door, old
room,
I fall upon the couch, I sweat
and I cough I cough small words
lions bearing down through coffee cups and puddles, I
sigh, Cleopatra. Not for either of us, but for the rest.
And in the end, for starters, figuring out what I want to
do for the rest of my life. I am not entirely sold on being a
lawyer, although at this point I’ve accrued enough skills as
a paralegal that I’m part of me feels like it would
something of a waste to avoid law school. And while I enjoy
helping other people with their problems, and find some of
the work very interesting, there is part of me that still
wants to do something in which I’m genuinely interested.
So, if not law school, then I will likely apply to grad
school, but I feel like I need to be certain before I decide
to go one way or the other, and at this point I’m
undecided. I’m trying to set goals relative to my interests,
yet people around me are consistently urging me to shape
my goals around what best benefits my future, and therein
lies the rub, as I’ve so long believed, and still believe, that
living in the present moment is the key to happiness, it just
isn’t always practical.
Top five websites you most frequent:
1. Drudge Report
2. Pandora.com
3. Panicstream.com
4. bt.etree.org
5. Divinecosmos.com
Late Night Poets 
If I may… there is a lot of wisdom in your final comment. Living in the present moment is the key to happiness. Whatever choices you make in life, do it with your heart first and logic second. Find the balance that is right for you. Never allow others to pull you away from your true self. You will know your true self by your passions. With passion comes happiness.
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