Richard Tietjen

Richard's obituary, New Haven Register

TIETJEN RICHARD JR. Richard Doremus Tietjen Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia on February 2 1952 and only later when his family moved to New England did he enjoy the renown of being born on Ground Hog Day. Even as a baby and toddler he showed a huge delight in the natural world and looked outside the window at age 3 to ask his mother to come look at the cowboys on the grass meaning of course the cobwebs. It seemed inevitable that he would become a poet. He spent his first 11 years in Amherst Massachusetts living on a farm where nature and space nurtured his poetic vision. The family moved to Old Saybrook Connecticut in 1963 and he was always ahead of the librarians in trying out more mature literature than they were ready to allow him to read. He attended the Taft School where he was a Greek scholar hurdler and like many other lads at the school joined in the aquarian celebration at Woodstock in 1969. He attended Amherst College where he majored in English graduating cum laude and winning the poetry prize for his class. During the next 7 years he followed his bliss writing poetry and working in farms and forests in southern Vermont and New Hampshire. He returned to Shoreline Connecticut in 1982 and settled into a challenging and pleasurable job as a computer engineer for Dushkin Publishers and then McGraw Hill. Seeking to use his computer knowledge for his own social concerns he developed a web site for the Shoreline Greenway Trail project and was active in the project from the beginning. He became a member of the Guilford Peace Alliance where he was known for reciting his poetry at their weekly vigils. He also was active in various poetry groups including the Art Place and the Yale Medical Group which published poems of his in their annual publication Caduceus which helps patients to share their poetry and helps them to share their common humanity feelings and insights with eachother. Richard's courageous 14 year fight against lymphoma was remarkable and strengthened his own compassion towards family friends and the world as they showed their love and affection for him. He had a gentle departure on April 20th surrounded by family and friends.He leaves his parents Louise and Richard Tietjen as well as his brother Ramsey and wife Toni along with three nieces: Rachel Chloe and Erika and his sister Sarah,.her husband Richard and their children Nathaniel and Olivia. A memorial service will take place on Saturday April 25th at 1 PM at the Shoreline Unitarian Universalist Society at 297 Boston Post Road Madison Ct. For directions you may call 203-245-8720. Instead of flowers people may send contributions to: the Neighborhood Music School at 100 Audubon St in New Haven or the Shoreline Greenway Trail at PO Box 148 Branford Ct 06405 or to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Foundation. The Swan Funeral Home Old Saybrook has charge of the arrangements.

Bio

Richard Tietjen took a BA in English at Amherst College where he studied with writers Robert Stone, William Pitt Root, and Anne Fessenden. For his thesis he wrote Forgotten Poems, several of which appear in Early poems.

After a number of years cutting down trees and building things from wood, he then worked as a programmer in the educational publishing industry for 20 years In 2004 he devoted his energies to writing poems that have appeared in Caduceus, the Connecticut River Review, and on his Kitchen Ink website, (http://kitchen-ink.org ). He has read at many poetry events in New Haven and up the Connecticut Shoreline. He lives in Guilford, CT where he practices both poetry and textual programming and belongs to the Guilford Poets Guild, Shoreline Greenway Trail, and Guilford Peace Alliance.

Note: Richard passed away on April 20, 2009. The sidebar contains the text of his obituary, which appeared in the New Haven Register.

Here are some collections of his poetry:

Here is a mp3 recording of one of his readings:

border_crossing.m3u

Here is a collection of his personal philosophy and essays:

Hypersphere.pdf