John Herrin - Determined to write!

I'm a careeric bedouin. I've been a general laborer in a greenhouse, worked concrete into fountains, sold cameras, operated a photo studio, and been a graphic designer. Now, I work in a university communications office and teach technical writing. If you ask me what I am I will always say that I'm a writer.

My earliest memory is connected to books and writing and there really hasn't been anything else for me. Nothing compares to the joy of the written word and regardless of how I pay the bills, I'll always be a writer.

My Philosophy:

Writing absorbs a magical symbolism. Tomes of poetry and fiction are pulled out and hovered over by professors intent on squeezing meaning out of the various lines. How close, though, is the act of writing to the academic practice of deconstructing the writer's intent? Is writing a functional reduction of the emotional and intellectual essence of the writer and his or her culture?

Or is poetry truly magic that taps the collective unconscious, the silver threads that tie us to reality?