Jim Carroll with Darius James
The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church
New York, NY, 7 October 1998
Review by Shane A. Scaglione
The first time I got to see, meet and talk with Jim Carroll was at the St. Mark’s Church on Oct.7 1998. Darius Jones read before him. Jim sat in the crowd talking with friends.
He was thin and tall with an almost translucent skin tone. He had long red hair complete with the part down the middle as seen on the Pools of Mercury album. He was wearing a suit without a coat but instead a black leather jacket. Then, I got to speak with him in the concession area, toward the back of the church. I asked him about how he writes poems and what I got was the most helpful information that none of my English teachers ever gave about how to write a poem.
He replied, ” You can’t write off of inspirational stuff because that only happens about once or twice a year.” ” I just try to get out there and type. I know there are times when I am stuck for what to write, but I just get out there and keep typing.”
He also mentioned the two ways that he described to me to write a poem was:
a. to have a really good line and base your poem around it.
or
b. You have one theme or topic and write your poem around it.
It was very inspirational talking with him and it has inspired me to start writing poems.
Jim’s reading was really great. He gave a great performance. He had this big bottle of spring water and he would drink water in between poems. He would also shake his leg sometimes while reading. He read selected readings from Fear of Dreaming and Void of Course. My favorite part of the reading was the first thing that he read. It was a novel he was working on. It sounded really good and I can’t wait until it is released. I believe this is going to be the first full novel that he has ever wrote. What, I remember from what he read was that it was about a guy who just got out of jail and he was standing on the top of the Empire State building and he normally hated to have change in his pocket, but on this day he had a lot. He put it in the machine to look out to see his apt. building ,but instead the viewer landed right at a building where there was a couple and they looked like some celebrities that he liked when he was younger.
At the end of the reading he signed autographs. There was a long line but, he signed all the books and gave everyone a chance to have all their books signed and some people had everyone of Jim’s books with him. All in all it was a great day. One that I will most certainly remember.