Jim Carroll at U of Kentucky (Lexington, KY)
29 January 1996
Poem-review by Sophie Gentry
letter to jim carroll
dear sir
i lined up with all your fans
like a fan
though ashamed to say i’ve never read the b-ball diaries
not seen the film and don’t know if i will
only heard
thrice-personed accounts of spiked arms
why are drugs and booze so intricately seductive to the likes of you,
and me
and i lined up with the book bought the day before
and not read
and i lined up with friends carrying cd booklets,
dogeared copies of forced entries,
with your face and your words packed inside
and i saw people i didn’t know, but probably should
and i lined up listening to people talk:
talk about “Jim”, about you, as though you grew up next door with Jesus,
and does everyone call you Jim,
–Jim used to live with Patti Smith and…
someone else, whom i forget now but shouldn’t
–Jim is on the faculty at Naropa, but I never saw him there
and more and more and more on the construction
and institutionalization of Ginsberg,
Kerouac et. al. (and i suppose that includes you)
and i lined up, fiddling with the cover of my book, your book
knowing i’d read it later
folding the cover back and forth
back and forth
and finally we shuffled up, handed over the goods, got the mark that’ll make us
rich one day OUR INVESTMENT (cheaper than a lifetime of lottery tickets)
and it only cost me $15, a ride to Lexington, and one evening
one evening of words
that were flat type in museumed books
until you smashed their glass cases and flung them out
in a breathless game of one-on-800…
give or take a few
Sophie Gentry is a poet from Louisville, Kentucky.