Lament for Then and Now

Alan Scott's poetry has changed from the publication of his book The Will of Our Times when he was 19 and attending college. While those poems were more lyrical and impressionistic, his present ones in Lament for Then and Now are more real and current. "The world has changes for the worse," he says, "and writers have to take that into account. We have to write what is and not what we want to hope it will be. People can know and decipher the truth. Social relevance is very important these days." Some of his poems, with that in mind, have been penned to the page such as: the right to review, I've never seen war, a lost bastard kid, a war Christmas, no-parking/blues for a poet, an alien land, prejudice, perspective on Afghanistan, doomsday's reckoning, funeral, a plea for people who run away, poem for the one-night stands and others can thrust the reader in the singular comment, "Yes, it's true. I'm living it!" Alan Scott began writing seriously when he was young, finishing his first book, The Will of Our Times, when he was just 19 and attending Oswego State College in New York. He has continued writing when he could, penning poetry, essays, short stories, novels and an informational guide for kindergarteners written with Elise Scott. But teaching elementary school on Long Island, giving piano lessons and raising 2 sons, left little time for writing. ""I guess I got caught up in the crab-grass culture,"" he says. After retiring 25 years ago and moving to Wellington, Florida, it took several months before Scott ""got totally bored"" and realized he had to do something productive. A piano major in college he started giving piano lessons again and composing. He also went back to writing. He has composed the music for Cottage Theater Players' production of Risen. Scott also performed his own Rhapsody for piano and orchestra for the Palm Beach Music Teachers Association. For the past six years he has resided in Miami Beach, Florida where he continues to write.