First Blog

Hello all,

I'm Dominique. Most people call me Dom. I'm a senior Environmental and English combined major with two minors, one in Biology and the other in Outdoor Studies. I know this sounds like a lot, but when you look at it, all these disciplines are really interconnected, which is one of my favorite things about a liberal arts education. I've always been really interested in the environment and the natural world, and in high school I saw myself focusing on the sciences, but knew in the back of my mind that I've always really loved writing. Which is why I'm here. I've never really pictured myself (and still don't) as a person who spends all their time writing, nor do I plan to pursue it as a career. I want to be out in the field doing research in different parts of the world, because natural sciences have always intrigued me the most. But there's something about reading literature and writing that allows me to better understand the world we live in in so many different aspects, and that is why I am interested in English.

Like Jak, I'm also from New York City, although most people who meet me would never guess it. Grew up in an old 1800's tenement building in the East Village with my bathtub (no shower head) in the kitchen, my toilet room in the hallway of the building (outside my apartment), and a ceiling that occasionally caved in. My neighborhood used to be where all the underground artists of all kinds lived and shared and thrived. But the idea of the East Village as a creativity hub is now more a novelty than a reality, for wealthy people with extensive educations and high paying jobs have moved in, pushing a lot of these artists elsewhere. Such is the case with "gentrification" I guess. So, my neighborhood is safer than it's ever been, but I still prefer the junkies huddled on park benches to the college students from Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey bar hoping with too much make-up and too little clothes talking about how cool New York is.

Anyway, people would probably never guess I'm from New York City because a large chunk of my interests and hobbies involve being outside. On campus I live in the Outing Club themehouse and I love hiking, paddling, climbing, skiing and all of those kinds of activities. I try to go on some sort of outdoor adventure as much as possible and every weekend at school. I also grew up riding horses and I have a horse named Merlin, who lived up at school with me for the first three years, but my mom decided she wanted to keep him at home with her this year (I miss him a lot). I love music, mostly indie/experimental and some folky stuff, and going to concerts. I'd like to pick up the guitar again, so I've started with that, and maybe the harmonica for kicks too. I also really enjoy making things out of wood, I find it to be a really satisfying medium to work with, and I've made a couple things already (bench, paddle, bowls and spoons). I did the Adirondack Semester and the Kenya Semester last spring, and both experiences have influenced me greatly in ways that would take way too long to describe. I love traveling and plan on leading outdoor trips domestically and abroad when I graduate.

This kind of atmosphere of my neighborhood and family got me interested in beat poetry such as Ginsberg, Burroughs, Bukowski, Kerouac, etc and other more contemporary stuff. My father also wrote poetry before he died, and actually knew Allen Ginsberg because he lived a block away from where my parents lived before I was born, and William S. Burroughs as well, so I've been very intrigued by their work because of its connection with and influence on my father, whom I never really got to know. I also really like some poems by Ted Kooser, T.S. Eliot, E.E. Cummings, Louise Gluck, William Carlos Williams, etc. I've never really taken too much of a liking to the older stuff such as Shakespeare and before, although I've never really given it a chance. I enjoy a lot of the romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats and Whitman, and have learned a lot about that period of writing from taking a class and because of the period's connection to nature.

After writing all this I feel almost a little uncomfortable, because I don't really like writing too much about myself; I don't want to be tooting my own horn. And maybe that's something I can work on a little this semester, because issues involving the self can also pertain to others if it is phrased right. I don't think that's a priority though. Because my main focus of study has not exactly been emphasized on the English side of things I would really like to read more poetry this semester and broaden my horizons, because I really have not read as much as I feel like I should have by now, and I am ready to get inspired and influenced by other people's work and learn more about different styles of poetry. Some of my writing classes (not my intro poetry class however) have left me kind of uninspired, which is pretty disheartening to me. But, I've always had a pretty positive experience with workshops, although I do wish that people would offer my constructive criticisms rather than just saying "Oh, your poem was pretty good".

The use of language on the page really allows us to explore questions we might not be able to articulate in conversations, but need to be heard (but not necessarily answered). I think good poetry should inspire us to think along with the writer, to inspire a conversation with what the writer is saying and to have the writer create a common sense of wonder with the reader. I think a good poem should leave a lingering feeling in the reader that keeps them thinking about it after they have finished.