In January 1978 – on John’s radio show at Upsala, with Tom, I knew then that Tom wrote better poems. Mine, from his, were very different. And I don’t use that word ‘very’ lightly here.
John said I was a Romantic. I didn't know what to make of that.
Tom had it right – off to count sheep on the Falkland Islands, after that thing with the Submarine crew. He was doing just fine, too, until the war came along. He sold his story to the TV crew so he could pay his way home.
He ended up in Japan, teaching English, I think, with a Japanese wife. Then he died. And where are his poems now? The one about the lumberjack I especially enjoyed.
When John had us on the radio, he made a tape of our appearance. I had him make me a new cassette ten or fifteen years ago when the first one crumbled. I was planning to ask for yet a third copy, after all these years, just a few years ago, when I heard that John, too, had died.
Maybe we’re better off that the audio is lost. I feel bad that Tom’s poems are gone. Maybe John & Tom are together somewhere reliving their days in Mexico City or some other beat adventure about which I never heard the rest of the details.
Hold on a second. Someone's bashing at the door, something about my poetic license, whatever that is. Must be the word police!
"Turn in your pens, pencils, cameras and keyboards, and walk away, slowly, and forever."
Every thirty years or so, I publish some poetry – maybe we’ll meet again.
And he sat back never again to write another line.
Copyright © 2006-2016 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
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Like this is chopped liver?
Yountakah Country
No Time For Rhyme
Frankly, nobody's been asking for an update here in almost a month so there's nobody to ask to pardon my continued exile... thanks for stopping by if you're a newbie
A volume of poetry, Days You Knew Me, was published in 1976. It is safely out of print.
Jimmy Boyce Photos of John Narucki
first publishd 6-23-2006
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