A Message from Jim Carroll

By Jim Carroll
Unpublished, 1996

The graphic shown here
is a scanned image of this never-published fragment, which Carroll
copied out of his notebook in February 1996 while waiting for
his flight at the Toledo, OH, Airport.

Audio Clip

Recorded live at First Avenue (Minneapolis, MN) on June 18,1996. (0:25)

Have
you isolated
Your rage?
. . . and what route have
you designated

to
dispose of it?

How
often do you / in a day /

fear
losing it all?

Don’t
worry, don’t
worry, you’ll get home

Just
remember
to keep the river
on the right.

2/21/96
–Jim Carroll

© 1996 Jim Carroll

---

Note
#1: The phrase keep the river on the right is a direct
reference to the memoirs of New York painter Tobias Schneebaum,
who “headed off alone into the uncharted Madre de Dios
rainforest of Peru. His only directions were ‘keep the river
on your right.'” Check
out the book!

Note
#2: This poem eventually metamorphosed into “Sick Bird,”
published in Void of Course (1998). Check
out the evolutionary history.