CR, I am published poet too, but that is off-topic so I won't go into it here other than to say I studied creative writing at the U of H, main campus. Poppycock, your statement about all writers'
correspondence being seen as a creative effort. Sheesh, you were really overboard with that one, and you know it. LOL.
How can I not judge Echols based on his teen aged behavior? He is on death row for his teen aged behavior is he not?
You and I will just have to agree to disagree as to whether or not he belongs there. We've obviously drawn our lines in cyberspace.
Yes, yes, his writing has improved tremendously, but his efforts are still highly personalized. He hasn't attempted anything ambitious yet. True also, he is not writing from a psychotic mind today which is why we get a poem like, First Love, which is a decent poem.
I would like to see others of at least that same caliber if you have them. I refuse to pay for anything Echols might get a pittance from, though likely he's already gotten his dimes from Rattler and Porcupine if indeed he was even paid for his submissions. I know little of Porcupine and less of Rattler.
I also do not know that Damien is not a paranoid schizophrenic. If he isn't now, he was well on his way to being one at age 18. For all I know, all of his behavior has been an act, an attempt to deceive others for various imagined gains.
There is something disturbing about him today that makes him seem not quite right. His dismissive arrogance does not warm him to the cockles of anyone's heart, that is anyone who casts a cold eye on him. I don't know, but would think it possible that his flat or blunted affect came from the years in prison and before. For sure he is trying to be normal to the degree creative types are willing to go to help their art.
If he is to be a poet of any worth, he will have to learn not to set himself above his readers, not that I've seen he's done that recently. I'm just saying. If he can't do that, then he's got a mental problem, and either it will be dealt with or not.
I think there is a dark undercurrent to him, that you supporters don't seem to see or overlook because you don't want to see that about him. It rises to the top when he is under great strain and stress. I am not sure what positive coping skills he has acquired. Obviously it takes skill to cope with death row, but then, that is a very small world, and Lorri Davis is responsible for a great deal in dealing with Echols personally. He does seem aware of that. Death Row is not the real world of husbands and wives, competitive writers, artists, musicians and the easy flow of drugs.
I'd rather support the memory and the families (some in dire straits themselves) of three innocent little boys who lost their lives, than take a chance on a death row inmate, esp. one with a history of mental illness, and grandiosity, the latter still disturbingly present.
As Pam said, he was a punk. Now I think he might be turning into a brat. Don't give him standing in writing he hasn't earned. I will say this much. He is surrounded by people who care for him, and about him, and he never had any kind of consistency or support in his life before prison, and until Lorri Davis showed up. I do think the support he's received is curative by degrees for whatever mental disorders he has or suffered from in the past if he owns up to it, and is self-aware of it. However, I think there is a danger of too much, too fast as far as accolades go, and in this case for minimal efforts.
Right now, he knows he has to keep a lid on himself for fear of harming his case. I really don't know what's under that lid from this point forward anymore than anyone else does, but I wouldn't risk that he's all that benign either, seeing where he's coming from, death row. That's just how I feel about it. I'd rather convict an innocent man (which as you know, I do not believe Echols is) than see the murderer of three children set free. Not all our choices can be positive ones in life.
Speaking in general here, I'm not running around wanting to do away with the death penalty. Neither do I clamor for it in all cases. I do see it as a viable alternative to our already overcrowded prisons, and I absolutely believe serial killers, child murderers, and serial rapists deserve the death penalty, not all, but the majority do. Off the top of my head, I'm think of the woman in Houston who drowned her 5 children. She was clearly insane, and is now where she belongs, for life. in a hospital for the criminally insane.