Dylan Haviland – General Assignment Reporter
Kenneth Pollans has walked across many paths in his life. Born in 1945, Brooklyn, New York, Pollans had held multiple professions: from teaching elementary education in Bridgeport Public Schools to day camps to working at the Curtis Home helping socially maladjusted children and young adults. His life experiences have lead him on a journey that brought him together with people and their own individuality.
Pollans has interpreted his life through poetry and writing, focusing on humanity and the elements of life. Much of his work is exhibited in his new poetry book, “The Cobblestone Path.”
Influences on Pollans artistic and spiritual pursuit began in the late 1960s as he became a part of the 60s movement. In this time period he visited Woodstock and throughout saw famous musicians such as: Bob Dylan and The Doors (before they were famous remarked Pollans).
Along with the spiritualism of the era, Pollans found his inspiration for writing in the classes he taught for over a quarter of a decade. He found his happiness in life through teaching the younger minds, instead of the business world he originally pursued.
“It’s a very cold area of business and the bottom line is money, people do not count and if you don’t make the money you are out immediately and no one really cares about the person,” said Pollans. “Where in education the person was the first priority and that’s much more satisfying to me.”
One of his poems featured in the book, “Richest Man” is an in depth study of the wealthy’s role in society.
An excerpt from the “Richest Man” reads, “You’re the richest man but what good has it been, the poor: They are starving, the people: They are praying, the nation: It is decaying, the world: It is dying. If you were the richest man what changes would you bring?…”
Separated from the business world and now working with children, Pollans was always involved with their work and their pursuit of writing. He often wrote his own works along the same time as his younger students did.
“When you work with children and they are in third grade they are very open and tell you everything, they keep you in tune with what is happening in the world,” said Pollans.
Pollans work in its own keeps the audience in tuned with their own personal journeys through life. Often writing for friends or even strangers, his poetry and artwork are an intimate and spiritual portray of love, family, life and death.
One page of his book portrays the life of people by bringing in three of his works: “Rose”, “Snow Mists” and “Snow.” Each descriptive poem of nature ties into the delicate lives of people, that they are capable of beauty and impacting others.
As if in comparison to the moments of the individual’s life, a section of “Snow” reads, “Snow is a moment in time, passing in the warmth of a second, disappearing in a splashing wave, out of what our memories knew…”
Pollans poetry in the book are further complimented by his drawings which were sorted with each piece by his son, Michael Pollans, who also contributed to the cover art of the book.
The drawings, ranging from Pollans notebooks are works of people and nature, flowing together in pen and sometimes watercolor.
The process of him working with his son contributes to the overall human aspect of the collection of poems. Throughout the pages, scattered photographs are shown depicting his family and life, the end reading “The dream continues…” in an image of palm trees, next to it a drawing of a yellow bird flies near.
“All religions are interrelated and all people are interrelated,” said Pollans. “We are only on one tiny planet.”