My name is Otto Osip Ochs, born in 1945, in Leipzig, East Germany. My family and I lived in a Southern German Displaced Person’s Camp. There, I experienced the minimal joy and tragedies of refugee life, from 1945 to 1956. In the summer of 1956, we immigrated to Fresno, California. In the camps, I absorbed both German, Russian, Polish, and other East European languages, also the myriads of emotions as expressed though these languages. I didn’t realize that I absorbed countless images of joy and sadness.In Fresno (1956) I was quickly introduced to American English, California Spanish, and variations of Afro-American slang. All these languages sounded exotic, intoxicating and, to say the least, poetic. In High School, I was put in a class for non-conventional students. This class was a saving grace; it just let me write, and I wrote in a furry. And, once-in- a- while, a small amount of clarity shone through the fog of teenage confusion and American English. Years of sojourning followed, via San Francisco’s North Beach in the waning years of the Beatnik era, then on to the Haight Ashbury. In January of 1967, I took a bus to New York where I met Allen Ginsburg and others. In April, I traveled to the Oglala Rosebud Indian Reservation, in South Dakota. I returned to San Francisco, in the famous summer of 1967, months later to Morning Star Commune, in Sonoma County. I joined the Hare Krishna movement, in San Francisco. In September of 1968, I flew back to Europe, stayed in Berlin for two months, and on Sundays walked along the Berlin wall. From Hamburg, I hitchhiked to Copenhagen, where I got acquainted with the Afro-American Vagabond poet, Edward English. In late September to November, I stayed on John Lennon’s estate in Ascot, England, there I met the musician and visionary. I lived in Mexico in 1976/77. I felt at peace in the realm of Catholic kindness and its surrealism, and of course, the home of the great poet Octavio Paz.I earned a B.A. in English Teaching, at Fresno Pacific College, and an M.A. in English/Poetry at The University of Louisiana at Monroe, Louisiana. My writing became somewhat coherent in poetry and prose. So, here I am, at age 76 and still writing. I have two books of poetry published, numerous poems in literary magazines, and four unpublished novels, three of the four is a trilogy. If you are a writer or a creative soul, don’t quit!P.S. “The road from intensity to greatness passes through sacrifice.” --KassnerRead more about this authorRead less about this author