Axt, Robert: Mixed Messages and the Arts
Intelligence bears the precious gift
of bringing into being
the dream only imagination
makes possible our seeing.
And the dreams found deep within
the chambers of our hearts
are best expressed and brought to life
by the creative arts.
This poem presents the world view of Robert M. Axt, our guest on this edition of Radio Curious. Axt is a retired contractor who self-studied to become an architect, whose last name was changed three times by the time he was ten years old, and now in his mid-eighties, a poet and patron of the arts.
Axt, who has lived in Ukiah, California, since the 1960s shared his childhood story in the November 2016 presentation of First Person Plural, a monologue series taught and directed by the Ukiah dramatist Ellen Weed.
Axt created an enriched family life for himself along with a live of artistic imagery which he manifests in his work as an architect and in his passion as a poet.
In the first half of this edition of Radio Curious, Axt reads his monologue, Mixed Messages. It describes the loneliness and cruelty of his childhood, while living with relatives or step-parents, and often alone by himself after age 12.
In the second half we discuss how his life might have been had his father not been banished from his life at age 2, and his thoughts about the importance of fomenting the creative imagination.
The book Robert Axt recommends is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, by Louis Carrol.
This program was recorded on December 11, 2016.
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