Robert Mader-Kammer History of a Journeyman Poet

Annotation

But whatever power I may have over my own thoughts, I find the ideas actually perceived by sense have not a like dependence on my will. When in the broad daylight I open my eyes, it is not in my power to choose whether I shall see or no, or what particular objects shall present themselves to my view and so likewise as to the hearing and other senses (George Berkeley, 1710, Principles of Human Knowledge, Section 29). The History of a Journeyman Poet is a collection of autobiographical, semi-autobiographical, fantasy, and science-fiction poems. Though all the joy and all the pain the author has experienced over the course of his life, all this joy and pain are far exceeded or matched by countless others. What are unique are the authors perceptions and interpretations, when seeing, hearing, or smelling, his wordcraft. The goal of the craft of poetry writing, like other creative works, is to produce a master work. In the old craft guilds, all start out as apprentices. Some move on to become journeymen, a smaller number become masters. According to the author, these are his journeyman poems. As the journeyman is corrected by his master, the author welcomes corrections by his masters. Also like the literal meaning of the phrase journey man, this collection of poems are interpretations of a few moments in the authors unique yet ordinary life's journey.