Poetry by Sean O'Connor; "Contemplations, Daydreams, and Miscellaneous Notes (i.e., Jewelry of the Mind)

Hi, I’m Sean O’Connor, a professional poet. Bob Dylan and John Lennon are my two favorite poets, my personal masters/ top literary role models, as they most profoundly impact me, move me, influence me, and inspire me. My poetry tends mostly to rhyme and embraces a cross-genre style and as such incorporates, in varying degrees, aspects of lyricism, fiction, the essay, and the prosimetrum. My themes tend towards the philosophical and psychological, exploring the idea of what it might mean and be like to live an ever improving life. My heroines and heroes of prose Thomas Mann, David Foster Wallace, Phillip Lopate, Michel de Montaigne, and Susan Sontag. As to the source of inspiration for my cross-genre style, I believe I am most in debt to Gloria Anzaldua, not just for her prosimetric writing, but because, furtheremore, I believe she explains most vividly the intellectual framework and consciousness for cross-genre thinking. That said, I owe a great deal to Dr. Rosa Soto for giving me such a thorough introduction and study of Anzaldua. I'm not sure my mind would have been sufficiently primed to be so receptive to Anzaldua if were not for Dr. Leonard Winogora, who encouraged me and mentored me through my undergraduate work in Liberal Studies, and continued supporting my passion for interdisciplinary and even more crucially, critical thinking. Furthermore, professors Dr. Martha Witt and Dr. John Parras have both guided me as I've delved more deeply into both the theoretical meanings of "genre" as such, and how one might come to understand the three basic genres of literature more specifically. When it comes to the central philosophical-psychological theme of self improvement, which is my greatest interest, content-wise, I find that the insights of Andy Puddicombe, Tara Swart, Franlink Veaux, Martin Seligman, Abraham Maslow, and Shakti Gawain. Other poets and writers who, although are not my most primary influences per se, continually hold a special place in my aesthetic thinking include Among the rhyming poets: Claude McKay, Lord Byron, John Lennon, A.E. Stallings, and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Among the free verse poets: Langston Hughes, Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, and Denise Levertov. The fiction writers: Fyodor Dostoevsky, Robert Musil, Marcel Proust, Milan Kundera. The essayists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, James Baldwin, Leslie Jamison. The literary diarists: Witold Gombowicz, Ceasar Pavese, Samuel Pepys, Virgina Woolf, Anais Nin. I’m currently pursuing my MFA in Creative & Professional Writing at William Paterson University, where I also received my BA in Liberal Studies (with concentrations in Political Science & History). I also work as a writing tutor for Raritan Valley Community College. Aside from my writing, I'm vehemently political, fascinated with human sexuality, and love dogs. My wife and I have a Siberian Husky mix.