Still Confused, But Pleased

A month or so ago, after great disappointment of having my memoir, JUNK SICK: CONFESSIONS OF AN UNCONTROLLED DIABETIC, fail to get published by Farrar Straus & Giroux after a years worth of editing and work, I decided to seek alternative ways of getting my work out before the disease I've been living with for 50 years now catch up with me. I've given it a lot of help. My agent told me to bide my time and wait, but after forty five years of humping against it, I decided not to. I knew that the publishing industry, as so many other traditional industries in this country, was in a state (perhaps a natural one, like the dinosaurs), of "correction"; shedding its dead skin.
And so, I found Smashwords and published it. Since its publication and accompanying interview, it's doing very well. The literary reviews it's gotten--Teleread, GalleyCat, on some blogs--have been very gratifying. And I've been trying to do what I can to get the word out--but it ain't writing. Not really. And so, I've decided to just do what I can about that and fuck the rest. Whatever happens, happens.
But I've been confused what to do on a blog. I think what I'd like to do is just put some of my poetry on it. Some have been published in small rags and mags of the sixties and seventies, even a few in the late nineties, but recently I've gotten back to it. Poetry, for whatever reason, is my rhythm, and I think that before it goes away I'd like to try and get that down as well. So, what I've decided to do is go back and put on this blog poems, with dates, best understood by other writers and artists, and those who also have a feel for a time and place.
Here's the first one:

CRAPS

sticky, like tar
stuck to the roof
of his mouth unable
to swallow so choked
instead smiling his
own death. he saw.
slowly packed his bags
and waited.




Norman Savage
Coney Island,
1967



My memoir and accompanying interview can be found at:

http://smashwords.com/books/view/715
Interview : http://blog.smashwords.com