Joseph  Bottone was born to second generation Italian immigrants,

and raised in a traditional family environment in Brooklyn, New York. 

He was a troublesome child to his teachers, mostly a daydreamer,

asking questions for example about Moses parting the sea,

often challenged the accepted status quo.

A rebellious lost soul, seeking, ever seeking, what he knew of another world.

He began to write his first poems.

As a young boy of 7 or 8, in the backyard of his Brooklyn family home,

apple blossoms hanging over the fence in spring, the corn knee high,

he had a vision of a serpent, green and gold, standing upright at least 6 feet in hight,

for the first time lifting the veil to another reality .

Wordless, 

He had no fear, and no-one to tell of his vision. 

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