JOHN DOE presents POETRY SLAB

 

 

 

John Doe presents:

  

POETRY SLAB

John Doe in San Pedro; photo by Paul Zollo

Mr. Doe is a songwriter, poet, actor and bassist, and was the heart and mind of the legendary X, as was Exene Cervenka. He was born John Nommensen Duchac on February 25, 1954 in Decatur, Illinois.  Doe performs also with the country-folk-punk band The Knitters. In the early 1980s, Doe performed on two albums by The Flesh Eaters.

This is his poetry slab

in which he posts poetry of his own,

as well as the poetry of other poets the world around.

                                                                                  Mr. Doe respectfully requests that any poets seeking a ride on the

bluerailroad, in other words,  to have 

your poems published

here on the poetry slab

for all the world to embrace,

simply email one, two or three poems

to our beloved publisher, Henry Crinkle:

henrycrinkle@bluerailroad.com

We will notify all chosen poets, and alert you to

the publication date.

And now, the boxcar opens

to

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SUNSET LIMITED

 It’s a long way from Tallahassee to LA

when all your thoughts are loss, racing

ahead of you along the track, crowding

in behind second thoughts and cold feet.

At Mobile you shake yourself awake, walk

the length of the sleeping car to contemplate

magnolia trees and houses with windows lit

at half past three along a crooked bayside street.

 

Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead! 

You cry for yourself and the Union dead,

drink complimentary coffee in your roomette

until the conductor announces they’re serving

ham and eggs in the dining car, passing close to

forty alligators sunbathing in Bayou Sauvage.

 —Fay Hart, 2005-2007

 DADE CITY 

 There’s a baby Jesus hanging in a tree

where Katrina washes her robes.

A river runs behind the store

where daddy turns up his nose.

 

I stand with a barefoot friend

who’s pregnant and on the phone.

Her tattoos look out of place

with tears and pale pink clothes.

 

There’s music on the side of the street

from a car parked in the shade.

Two guys are looking at us,

holding a jack and a can of grease.

 —Fay Hart, 1987-2002

 Fay Hart was born in Macclesfield and raised in the backwoods of Indiana. She was the Press Officer for the UK seminal punk label, Stiff. Her poems have been published in all the best literary journals in England and in several notable anthologies. At present she’s writer-in-residence at Kerouac House in Orlando, working on her first novel. The X song “Los Angeles” was written about her. Find her at http://www.myspace.com/gonegrrl and   www. kerouacproject.org

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 I AM A STATUE WITH VACATIONING EYES

 I am a statue with vacationing eyes

swimming in your eyes

sharky and veiled in black

seeing the same midnight.

Angels and saints carried around

in our sacred hearts abound.

We are blood and stone, flesh and secrets.

Our deepest dimensions are always

hollering for more in our dusty highway hideouts.

But we know that hallowed ground

is simply a place called home.

–Exene Cervenka, 2007

Kristine McKenna wrote: “In August of 1976 Exene moved to Los Angeles, because she knew she had to get out of Florida. She arrived in town with $80 in a paper bag and wound up living with 5 people in a 1-room apartment in Ocean Park. A short time later she began working in Venice in the library at the literary arts center, Beyond Baroque, where she was allowed to live upstairs. X, the punk band formed in 1977 by Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, John Doe, and D.J. Bonebrake, came along just in time for those of us coming of age in the mid-’70’s who were discovering that the conventional path through life wasn’t an option. In Los Angeles at that point in time our numbers proved to be legion, and we found each other at L.A.’s seminal punk petri dish, The Masque.” These days Exene is writing poetry (“she gets up in the morning, brushes her teeth and writes another poem,” said Mr. Doe), creates artwork, writes songs, and performs with her band The Original Sinners,  with X and with The Knitters.

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your airplane

 

 brick buildings all look the same

cemeteries floating in air

 little town outskirts’ torn

blood on the highway

wild eyes of a deer

men falling from the sky

leaves stuck to your neck

love once a day

you just can’t get it

 I wish I could be your airplane

 –John Doe, 2006

 

John Doe lives in Lockwood Valley, California with his wife, two children & numerous animals. He has released several records & acted in films & television.

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