[New-Poetry] Waits, poet by any other name

[Tad Richards]

I am a poet. And don't call me Shirley.

On 11/24/10, jforjames at aol.com <jforjames at aol.com> wrote:
>
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/11/tom-waits-poet.html
>
> The poetry of musician Tom Waits will see publication next year in the book
> "Hard Ground," published by the University of Texas Press. "Hard Ground" is
> a collaboration with photojournalist Michael O'Brien and  will be a visual
> and poetic look at homelessness.
>
> It is not the first time Waits' poetry has appeared in print (even if NME
> says it is). Waits attended a poetry workshop at Beyond Baroque, the
> literary center in Venice, Calif. A poem he read there -- an early version
> of "Diamonds on My Windshield" -- was printed in  the Sunset Palms Hotel, an
> occasional early '70s 'zine (the cover featured a line drawing by Charles
> Bukowski).
>
> But don't call him a poet. In a 1975 interview with the Los Angeles Free
> Press (dug up by TwentyFourBit), Waits said, "I don't like the stigma that
> comes with being called a poet."
>
> =
>