Phil

I started writing poetry at sixteen and used one of my early poems in The Gettysburg Ghost... I'm overwhelmed by you to the point where words won't come and so like a child discovering another marvel of the world I stare uncontrollably at you until your eyes meet mine and force me away.For many years all I wrote was poems until the poems became so long they became something else. I attempted all types of poetry metered ryhme, musical in nature and words without form like a wave ever changing.Middle child of five with 2 older brothers and 2 younger sisters. My father was a blue collar worker U.S. Post office and always with a second job to make ends meet. My mom who was a war bride from Italy took in laundry and baby sat to help ensure we wanted for nothing. Great people making great sacrifice for their children. Things were great! Then in 1968 my oldest brother John Pio Rogone was killed in action in the northern area of South Viet-Nam. When a death occurs it either brings families together or blows them apart. For us it was the latter. Mom and Dad got divorced 2 years later and all of us children suffered internally in different ways. Perhaps it was fear of being too close to them that forced me away. I'm not sure. It has taken many years for us to reconnect with each other and that has been healing. Always the entertainer I did some singing and acting in San Diego after 3 years in the U.S. Army. I was cast in a two man play when my first wife decided to call it quits. Without getting into great detail I have slowly found my way to happiness with a woman who appears to love me just the way I am. Because of her I have lost all fear of failure, so I am now a writer and a pretty good storyteller. writing, inventing, reading the Bible.