At my purest, I’m a writer. I write about everything.

My literary readers, those who favor my poetry and memoir work, they say I take them places with words. They say I make them feel the emotions of my  thoughts. To that praise, I offer the ecstatic grateful handshake of a boy who always wanted to be a poet. Thank you.

Others readers, the political junkies and activists who follow my antiwar and anti-corporate politics on The Active Voice, they say I teach them about their world. One woman called the site “a great news source.” I’m honored by this praise and offer a simple monk’s bow — humble thank you. It is my good fortune to serve.

Still other readers are fans of my fictional, Bukowski/Vonnegut alter ego, Tom Hardie. They call me courageous. They say I write the things they can’t afford to scream in the faces of  their worthless bosses. They love that I tell off the powerful, that I rage at the rampant stupidity of our culture. This always makes me smile. I sometimes fantasize about a great future generation of young, outspoken, outraged Tom Hardie poets! That would make my life.

Some of my readers are simply amazed that I refer to myself as a poet, especially in my country, the good old USA, a place that doesn’t value poetry much.

How can I tell the world I’m a poet? a shy writer once wrote to me. He was afraid he’d be ridiculed by his friends. He probably would be. I once was. He wrote that I was his favorite poet, alive or dead. I read his email on my iPhone and cried. He asked me for advice. I hid my own poetry for decades for much the same reasons. I didn’t know what to tell him. The best I could reply was, just keep writing.

So, in these blogs, I’m taking my own advice. I’m going to just keep writing on the internet for all to see, create a digital song of my mind as it grapples to make sense of this ever-decaying world of ours.

But I will also teach, report, argue, engage, and build a conversational community that will raise the level of discourse in my little life, maybe, just a little bit. I will follow politics, call out criminals, fight bigots, and write some intense poetry.

I want to share as much of myself as I can, map my mind and my life onto this growing cyber-consciousness. Then when the super computers take over the planet, the cyborg clone of  Charles Bivona will be amazingly accurate, and I will be rendered technologically immortal…

I  sometimes dabble in comedic sci-fi, too.

…

I’ve divided my work into three different blogs to accommodate my three different audiences and voices.

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The Life and Mind of Charles Bivona:
Personal Journalism

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The Active Voice:
Politics, History, Culture w/ Prof. Charles Bivona

&

The Hard Hang
of Tom Hardie

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Of course, the lines between my three voices will blur and shift often. Many of the political, historical videos and articles I gather on The Active Voice directly inspire my personal journalism and poems, and sometimes — not very often, I swear — a Tom Hardie story is true!

I’ll never tell which posts are factual, but guessing in a comment is always fun, and you never know when I’ll be in a confessional mood.

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You can easily access the three websites, and some other fun stuff I’ve done, from  the HOME INDEX.

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HOW YOU CAN HELP

SUPPORT THIS ART EDUCATION PROJECT

There are several ways you can help me build a community of actively poetic, politically and historically conscious voices, and simultaneously help prevent my future house-lessness.

1. Browse my Bargain Book Store .. Yes, it’s an Amazon.com store. Sorry. I haven’t had the time to choose a more politically conscious replacement. Very Sorry!  I ::HEART:: Wikileaks! Truth Will Out!
2. Browse my Cafe Press Store and buy some merchandise: t-shirts, stickers, even Bodhi Snuggle Cards. This is also a cool way to help me advertise my work.
3. You can make a one-time donation and I will praise you poetically on Twitter and Facebook,  as well as add your name to the YOU ROCK! Donor’s Page, which I am currently constructing.

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