You Never Know – The Case of the poet Marc Swan

In my first year of teaching in 1973, I had a class at Cal State Los Angeles teaching a group of rehabilitation counselors.  I was 25 years old and a year into my doctoral program at UCLA.  My students were all older than me.  One of the students in the class was Marc Swan.  He was an aspiring rehabilitation counselor, and a few years older than me.   After the class was done, we gradually became friends.  Over time, we became very close and shared a combination of humor (and lots of it, the sicker the better), the counseling process, and, well…partying.  It was the 70s after all, and I was in my mid-twenties.  I always enjoyed the company of Marc Swan.  He was a fun guy, and he had a great way of coming up with nicknames for other people.  At any rate, over time we lost touch.  Through marriages, divorces, children, grand children, and just plain life, we lost touch.  About six years ago I re-established contact with Marc.  He was living in Cape Cod and writing poetry.  Very very good poetry.  We got back in touch, I visited him and his wife Dianne in there new home in Portland, Maine, where they now live.  They recently blew my mind by showing up as a total surprise to my book launch party at Ca’Brea on January 21 of this year, brought by another student from the same class, Sheldon Roth.  I always marvel at the fact that I met Marc as his professor when I was 25 and he was 28.   He just sent me this review he found by surprise, which highly praises his poetry.  I am very happy for him and really recommend his writing, especially if lived through the 60s and 70s.  It’s right on and quite incisive.  As I was reading his book, I noticed in the Acknowledgments he mentioned his friend Billy Bob.  I asked him who that was, and he told me that “You’re Billy Bob.”  That’s what he now calls me all the time.  I’m thinking of changing my middle name from Michael to Robert, but then again, maybe not.  I recommend you follow the link or Google Marc Swan.  You’ll be glad you did.  This story adds a lot of meaning to my life, and I hope it brightens up your day.

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