Growing up the son of poor Russian immigrants, Kushner says his father never learned to read or write, and his mother only learned to write very little. Kushner was first exposed to poetry while he attended P.S. 52, an all-boys school in the Bronx.

"My teachers used to read poems by Walt Whitman," Kushner says. "I loved to hear them. Coming from people who were silent, incapable of glorious speech, I saw words as a to get out of whatever hell I was in."

During his early adolescence, Kushner started to become increasingly anxious about his sexuality. He says there was a period of about a year when he could not leave home because of his fears.

"I couldn't see where I fit in the world," he says. "I had these unspeakable desires that I couldn't express."

So the written word became his escape. He was still a young schoolboy when he began writing poems. Although he worked a variety of jobs to support himself over the years -- office worker, hatcheck clerk, messenger -- he continued writing.

Now with two playful and sexy books (Head and Love Uncut) published and a third book That April due later this year, Kushner is enjoying his day in the sun. It is a moment he wants to share with the gay community, because he remembers a time when there was no such thing as gay pride.

"I want people to read or hear my poems and have a sense of a life being lived with humor and humbleness," he says. "I want to break that wall and have people see where I am and be where I am. I want people to laugh and be happy at my readings."

However, he recognizes that even thought the gay community has a lot to be happy about, there has also been a lot of sadness, particularly because of AIDS.

"I've spent a lot of time at St. Vincent's Hospital, saying goodbye to friends," Kushner says. "At one point I was sure I had AIDS, too. My book That April is about my experiences during 1987, when so many things were happening to me and the people around me. Sometimes I read the poems I wrote at that time and I cry. Those times are gone forever. That book is about the times gone by."

Many of Kushner's poems tend to use sonnet form, but he admits that much of his bold, self-taught style is owed to other New York poets.

"I was influenced a lot by Frank O'Hara, and I love John Ashbery," Kushner says. "I admire these people. I could never get a college education, so these poets had the greatest influence on my work. They were gay poets who dominated the world, along with people like Whitman and Ginsberg. I try to be graceful in my writing. I'm not terribly in your face, but I am in your face."

By James Dellafiora / Blade, June 1999.