WALKING ON THIN ICE

Cleveland Poetry Scene, A Panarama & Anthology – cover by Jim Lang

april is poetry month thanks to T.S. Eliot, and it’s been a good month so far for creative recognition for me.

i’ve received my copy of Cleveland Poetry Scenes, A Panorama and Anthology. i’m one of 9 poets born in the 1940s to be included. they printed 3 of my poems, and Lady and I are both mentioned in half a dozen of the articles. book is available from Bottom Dog Press.

Cleveland Poetry Scene, A Panarama & Anthology – cover by Jim Lang

i had one of my fotos accepted as the cover art for Sara Holbrook’s new book coming out on Boyds Mills Press – actually getting paid for it. that makes photography, poetry, art, and publishing i’ve been paid other people’s money for so far. i took the foto inside the old walled city of Essaouira, Morocco, on the northwest coast of Africa.

the magazine Balanced Living is using both Lady’s and my art as illustrations in their next issue.

Jesus Crisis of TheCrisisChronicles.com blog is doing a blog on me in his poet series – i’ll be included with previous poets Alexander Pope, W.B. Yeats, Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac, and Ferlinghetti. believe i’m the only Unknown Poet he’s using.

i’m near the end of our 14th edit of our bio of my bad-boy past – CRIMINAL by Smith & Lady. the book is 309 pages, 135,000 words, and covers the inglorious low-lights of my life from 1946 through 2005 when Lady and i decided to split the u.s.a.

folks wonder how two people (Lady & Smith) can write one autobiography. when Lady first moved in, i started telling her my stories. she wrote them down. then she started interviewing me for more stories. we took her interviews of me, my previously written true stories, plus other stuff she or i or others wrote and said, and combined them into a memoir we’ve been working on for the past 2 years.

the book was Lady’s idea. she’s the one who arranged all this mess into a more or less coherent chronological order. she wrote some of it, rewrote some of what i wrote, re-flowed the entire manuscript, and kept it going even when i believed there might not be enough interesting stuff there. it is my story with a bit of her and my story at the end, but it is spiritually her book.

and it is a good book – funny, fascinating, and outrageous. now we need to find a publisher. this is a major book, so we need a major publisher.

cover to upcoming book More Than Friends – background foto by smith

1973 journal doodles – foto by smith

private journal, February 20, 1973

Paul psychology major says my in-class doodles are in his abnormal psych book… under the label of psychotic. It is nice to have labels. I like labels. I am a lot of labels: man, woman, boy, girl, ex-con, ex-this, ex-that. I am ex. Period.

1973 journal doodles – foto by smith

1973 journal doodles – foto by smith

1973 journal doodles – foto by smith

1973 journal doodles – foto by smith

1973 journal doodles – foto by smith

white bird dance – foto by smith

Flux U – that’s the school of life i attended. their majors were Learn & Live and Live & Learn, with minors in Learn & Earn and Earn & Live. only problem is the school is endless, never lets up or out. i hope there’s no school on the other side, after death. i just want endless summer vacation. when i die, i want to be unaware and really dead.

poster – foto by smith

graffiti – foto by smith

the u.s. social security administration has screwed me. because of their incompetence, i have to reapply for my benefits which were to start this month. that means every month it takes costs me a lost month of benefits. i answered every question they asked, supllied them with every official document they requested, and they fluxed it up anyway. a competent bureaucrat is an oxymoron.

reality seems a wee bit peeved i left the u.s. barcode box and started living life happy.

o well, my problems are so small compared to most folk, i can’t gripe about the little things. while other folk living up north in the cold have to get up to go to work for the corps and creeps who own it all, i relax down here under my sweet southern sun and midnight mexican moon.

still, i gotta admit, this is bumming me out – the creeps and the corps are trying to rip me off. never did trust the bastards, and they’re certainly proving me right.

ps addendum –

before i rail against all government employees, i must admit i’ve found a few good ones. we’ve called the sandusky ohio s.s. office thrice, and always received courteous help. and we’ve called the national 800 s.s. number thrice, and each time we’ve gotten immediate help and answers. they even emailed the painesville ohio s.s. office and told them to contact me, which of course they did not.

today we called the 800 number and told them the whole story, including that we’re living in mexico and using her mom’s ohio address as ours. mentioned the painful painesville office said i had to reapply. the 800 lady made a few calls, told me my birth certificate is indeed in the system, and that i do not have to reapply. she’s having the sandusky office call me today sometime to work things out. maybe they will be worked out, maybe they won’t – but at least s.s. folk are trying to help. see what happens.

i think the next Stephen King horror novel is to be titled The Painesville Ohio Social Security Office. at least they’re living up to their PAINesville name.

pps-adendum2 –

got a call from the s.s. office. they say my claim has been approved as of today and i’ll receive my 1st check next month. if true, hallelujah. if not, try again. wait and see.

i hate being at the mercy of others. but to be free in this world as it is, one needs money or power. i’ve neither. just have principles and inner anger.

graffiti – foto by smith