Stanley- both in class and speaking

Stanley is definitely a character. I  went to see him speak on Wednesday evening...along with about half our class. My first impression was a big surprise. I did not expect him to be so old. I thought, after reading some of his poems, he would be a little younger or at least look younger. Also, I had never been to a legitimate poetry reading before...I thought he would read a poem, then speak about it for a few minutes and then read another. Instead, he just read a bunch. I learned something new about poetry readings that night. 

Also, I am very curious about his life- but I was too scared in class to ask him about it. After hearing a lot of his poems on Wednesday, I want to know what he is all about. I even googled him to see what they wrote about him and it was all very vague. Does he travel a lot? Has he been to war? What is his wife like? Where does he live? How did he get to be so opinionated? How privileged is he to have had all of those experiences? He writes  a ton about events from all over the world. How did he get to have all of those experiences? Also, from some of his comments, it seems as though he went to war. But, I feel as though that is not something I can ask. He talks about rape, starvation, war, pillaging, disease. Are all of these horrible experiences his own?

He is a person who most obviously, in his old age, does not care what anyone thinks about him or his opinion. From class, I think we all realized that. He talks very openly about sex in his poems- which is a little uncomfortable for me to hear coming from an 83 year old. But, he wouldn't care what I thought. I guess I'll give him the upper hand because I don't know his life story. Maybe he is exceptionally wise, and by cursing us he meant well, but to be honest, he scared me.