The Cry of the Lonely, The Song of the Poet

Mark Neil Jones is a New York based poet, visual artist, musician, essayist and martial artist. Born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1952, he studied at the University of Miami, Kent State University and Columbia University as well as at the Westchester Conservatory of Music and privately with renowned musicians such as Anthony Smetona, Walter Bishop Jr., Cecil Taylor and Sal Mosca. Mark has shown his art in numerous galleries, held a post as an art professor and performed his music and had his music performed in a number of high profile jazz clubs and theaters, and has taught art and music in college and privately. He has had a plethora of articles and letters appear in such publications as the New York Times, the Village Voice, Newsweek, Art in America, The New York Jewish Week, the Cleveland Jewish News, Mojo Magazine, Downbeat, Blackbelt, Tai Chi Magazine, Inside Kung Fu, Dirty Linen, Car & Driver and others, and has had online essays praised internationally by distinguished scholars and authors. He also has been a serious practitioner and teacher of Chinese internal martial arts and philosophy for many decades, having had the privilege of studying kung fu and philosophy with the great master B.P. Chan in New York, and has subsequently taught martial arts and meditation both in the USA and overseas privately and in workshops. Mark began writing poetry in 1970 and has seriously pursued and refined his poetic art attending workshops by Robert Creeley, Galway Kinnell, Robert Duncan and other renowned poets as well as having read and exchanged ideas with other contemporary poets. Until now, he has never published his work nor submitted any to journals. This long overdue volume includes the best of Mark's selected work that was created over roughly the past 52 years as well as a survey of some of his never before seen paintings, drawings, and prints, including a sampling of his early Symbolist and Surrealist and his east-Asian-inspired works. Since 2017, Mr. Jones has resided in Putnam Valley, NY, in a secluded house on 9 acres, tucked deep into the woods with a stream in front and mountain behind where he can commune with nature and attend to his writing, painting, composing, practicing and working out.