Mike Marks

I am a writer, musician, performer and painter, and my music and paintings are available at http://cosmicpainting.com ... I was born and raised in a Jersey town directly across the Hudson River from the Empire State Building. When I was eight years old my only sibling, my eleven year old brother, died of cancer. I learned early that amputation and death are real things that happen to real people. I isolated and tried to understand the beyond my brother had passed onto. I had sleepless stomach ache nights trying to comprehend how existence can exist. I crawled into the music of the Beatles for comfort, began playing guitar and writing songs. Decked out in bell bottoms, a body shirt and vest I performed my first show in 1968 while in 6th grade. That same year I began having my writng published in comic book fanzines, and began publishing my own fanzine that I advertised and sold nationally, but that ended when I discovered girls and partying. In 8th grade I performed a solo concert in my grade school assemby hall for all my classmates, at least up until the principle stopped the show upon my singing the word "whore" during "The Boxer." During my freshman high school year my friends and I met on a rock and watched the World Trade Centers be built. I quit high school, got a GED, and began college right on scheduale in 1976. I was still fascinated in resolving my early question of how existence can exist. Some bizarre and enlightening experiences began occuring in my life. I found myself propelled into a cosmic space where a shining shadow communicated to me among the stars. I returned to an earth where I noticed a much more apparent magic of sorts. Assuming the presence of my spiritual guide, I considered myself protected as long as I was courageous, for It loved courage, and I remained faithful to love, peace and understanding, that philosophy the Beatles had comforted me with. I played in bands. I continued to self publish, music fanzines distributed among the NYC clubs, and works of fiction and philosophy sold through advertising. In the 80's I had a son. I lived with him and his mother. My son and I had a great eight years doing everything together. During that time I started a printing company. Hard times accumulated. My father died. My son moved to NC to live with my mother while I took care of personal business. I lived alone. I ended the printing company. I began life as an actor in NYC, and got my health together via training for and running the NYC Marathon in 1991. My son returned to live with me. I was a single father. I drove a cab where I met a woman who was a professional sex worker employed by an upper class agency and got involved in that world. I lost my way as a father, the woman moved into our home and my son returned to NC. I lived with her for five years. I realized my selfishness and left her and moved myself to NC. I found paid employment there as an actor. One day I decided to drive back to NYC, for a romantic weekend on my home turf, with an actress I was working with. During that weekend, while I was away, my son suddenly died. I drove back to NC and remained there for the next three years. Then I roadtripped across country and settled into Seattle for two years. Right after 9/11 I roadtripped back to NY where I settled upstate, eight miles up a mountain, with deer, bear and coyote for three years. Then I found via the website classmates a sweetheart from 6th grade and after a few visits with her decided to move to Florida to start a life with her. That didn't work out so I drove back up for NY with a stop in NC to see how my mother was doing. She was doing not so well, she had gotten very sick while I was away, so I rented a house a mile away from her. After a couple of years she died. I continued to live in NC where I developed a relationship with a woman who visited me regulalrly from Deleware. Currently I'm dividing my time between living in Deleware and NC.