[Last Modified 5/02 & 1/06]
Brief Benedikt
Bio.
Other Benedikt Sites & Other Only
Child Links
OF AN ONLY CHILD'S WORLD
1.
It's hard for anyone who hasn't grown up as an "only child"
to imagine just what that's like, I guess!
However (& I think I can speak about this subject with a certain
authority, having grown up once as an "only child"
myself)
I believe that--as with most other things about families (if not,
in fact, as with just about everything else on
earth)--
As with most subjects, in understanding this particular subject too,
A little stretch of the imagination can help!
2.
For example, I'll bet that you yourself--even just for openers--
can imagine quite easily
That "only" can mean sometimes kind of "lonely"
--And it's true: for an only child, right from the start
There are no elder sisters & no elder brothers nearby, much less
in the very same room
For a kid to cry out in the night to, or as darkness falls to talk to;
Therefore a child who is an only child will often fall asleep at night
Listening to TV; or to the radio.
3.
Nor is there any older sister or big brother to turn to, daytimes,
to share with an only child the benefit of his
or her experience
By offering advice on things like "How To Get Along In Life";
On the other hand there can be a certain element of excitement,
can there not?--
& Even a certain "Pioneering Sense of Exploration"
(as we might term it, to be brief)--
In "Finding Out Things For Oneself"!
4.
Of course, in such a situation there's no little sister
or little brother either
To watch over, look out for, & eventually share various favorite toys
& such with
--& Perhaps sooner or later, to become jealous of;
Yes, I guess I can say from experience & even with a certain authority
That it's inconceivable that an only child experience anything at all
Like feelings of "Sibling Rivalry"....
5.
In any event, a kid can get highly independent,
Growing up that way, relatively speaking on his or her own
& all by his or her own "lonesome";
--He or she learns to Look Within in the main, for solutions to many of
life's usual, youthful "Growing Pains"
First during childhood & then in later years
Revolving his or her own thoughts & racking his or her brains alone
about kinds of things which to be sure, concern
other people, too!
--Such as what in the world, might be best for one.
6.
Even the parents the child might have depended on a whole lot
more, & perhaps even loved a whole lot
better
Had not such a one started early on, "Going It Alone"
Being seen--whether those two were sleeping together during long dark hours
of night,
in the room they inevitably gravitated to, which
was their private space
Or whether they were hard at work--& thus hidden away then too
& absent & in some other place--
As presences in a separate world of their own, too; & therefore
as beings mostly "out there" somewhere, invisible
& veiled like mysteries;
&--What with all the other preoccupations of their own, adult
lives--
As distant as stars or galaxies.
7.
The fact that in their own younger years, at least they were once
Accompanied
Being confirmed by seemingly endless hosts
Of laughing-&-joking-together Aunts & Uncles, etc.,
Passing through the halls many nights--& yes, by all those other
footsteps
passing by one's bedroom door & into radiant,
multicolored party-lights;
All coming & going during their mysterious visitations
Like meteors or comets in the nights...
8.
So, just possibly, it takes a particular kind of courage
for a kid to go on growing up that way--
As isolated & separated & aware of the vastness & the
indifference
of the darkness that surrounds him or her
As our Astronomers are, scanning the universe from all around
the world & from outer space too
With both optical & radio telescopes
All hoping amidst the unanswering, obscure silences that they know, too,
To hear one signal or find one faint Sign
That our Earth itself, is not the only inhabited planetary Child
of any sun in the Universe that's thus far
known;
--& That none of us is really alone....
Of An Only Child's World
--Poetry about growing up as an only Child evoking
both Inner Space & Outer Space.
Child Psychology with an 'Are We Alone" subtheme.
Verses about a positive type of 'Exceptional Child'
view Only Children as independent, resourceful & perhaps even courageous
young individuals.
With vignettes of life in a single-child family. Poem first published in
The Iowa Review, © l995 Michael Benedikt.
Webversion © l998 Michael Benedikt. Revisions '02 & '06. From
OF:--a work in progress.
Contemporary U.S. Michael Benedikt has published 5 books of poetry: The Badminton at Great Barrington; or Gustave Mahler & The Chattanooga Choo-Choo, a sequence of poems about an tragi-comical love affair (University of Pittsburgh Press, l980); &, with Wesleyan University Press Night Cries (prose poems, l976); Mole Notes (prose poems, 1971); Sky (l970); and The Body (l968). Poetry represented in 65+ anthologies. Books he's edited include two landmark anthologies of modern poetry The Prose Poem: An International Anthology (Dell/Laurel, l976); and The Poetry of Surrealism (Little, Brown & Co., l974). A former Poetry Editor of The Paris Review, his editorial selections are represented in The Paris Review Anthology (Norton, l990). His literary criticism has appeared in Poetry and The American Book Review. He taught as Visiting Prof. at Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Hampshire, and Vassar College/s & at Boston University; & also at the 'Y' Poetry Center in NYC. Over the years he's given numerous poetry readings around USA, including a videotaped retrospective reading at invitation of Library of Congress Literature Division in l986. Most recent readings at various Barnes & Noble 'superstores' in the NY Metro area. Benedikt lives in Manhattan. E-Mail at benedit2@aol.com.
There are many Websites by this contemporary American Poet. They have selections from several of Benedikt's books & two works-in-progress.
SELECTED LINKS TO OTHER BENEDIKT SITES & MINI-SITES
At Bottom of Page-- Links to Background Info re Benedikt sites + 2 other Only Child Links
*
The
Thesaurus and Other New Verse--with other verse from work in progress
entitled OF:
Above Site contains a brief 'Guide to Benedikt
Mini-Web'
Poems from
Boston & Cambridge. An 'Only Child' Revisited
Verse from mss-in-progress entitled
Transitions
Early Poetry: The Body and
Sky--Selections from Benedikt's lst & 2nd books in 1998-05
versions.
And for the scholarly inclined & writers of term papers &
others,
a Thematic Index of topics of poems in both of these much-anthologized
collections of verse.
(With Notes & Commentary & photos from Benedikt's 1960's
Archive)
*
SELECTED MINI-SITES
'Of Living Alone--But Not Brooding Too Much About It' with poem on an only-child-similar theme
'Of Orson Welles Remarkable l938 Radio Program The War Of The Worlds' poem-in-progress on a sci-fi theme
'Of
The Colorful Taganka Troupe in Soviet Russia,
l957'
Poem about artistic courage. And above all re eternal human
need for more bliss in life!--a central theme in OF:
'J u
ly
4th Fireworks: New York
& N.J. & Laura & Me'
About term 'Independence' in 'Independence Day'--& the uneasy relationship
between public & private fireworks
'The Takings'
lst in a cycle of poems-in-progress about the impact
of World War II on civilians:
'The Kapos.' Re Nazi attempts in 1938 at recruitment of
voluntary prisoners for the camps in Nazi Germany
*
BACKGROUND INFO RE BENEDIKT WEBSITES. ALSO TWO OTHER 'ONLY CHILD' LINKS
*
About.com
Feature Article: 'The Compleat Michael Benedikt: Poet Laureate of
the Net'
The Academy
of American Poets
With a complete bio. And a poem from 4 of Author's 5 poetry
books
Great Ideas in
Personality
Highly Recommended:
Northwestern U's Alissa D. Eischens on Birth Order
&
'The Dilemma of The Only Child'
Also Growing Up Siblingless--Single-Child Parenting, 'loner' Only
Children, Versatile & 'ambivert' Only Children & more
With
Searchboxes for Only Child Info & Other Research in
Psychology/Sociology
Searchbox Link Temporarily in Limbo
OnlyChild.Com
Only Child data & lore including info
re Psychology of Only Children & their needs & concerns as adults,
too
Has extracts from print media magazine Only Child
Digest
