{"id":4187,"date":"2022-01-10T22:18:04","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T22:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8000\/?page_id=4187"},"modified":"2025-03-05T19:44:41","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T03:44:41","slug":"waynes-weekly-reader-part-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/feature-articles\/waynes-weekly-reader-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Wayne’s Weekly Reader (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Wayne Klick<\/a>
10 February 1999<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alright,
Buddha gets
A backstage pass
But his friends have to pay<\/p>— Jim Carroll, 1998<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I just finished reading The Basketball Diaries<\/em> by Jim Carroll.  If you are not familiar with this little volume, it is Jim’s true-life diaries about growing up on the streets of New York City in the early 60’s, while learning to shoot heroin as well as hoops.  The book gradually passes from his 13th year when basketball was his main thing, until 16 when smack had completely taken over — his life, his perception, his focus.  In the end he is sticking a knife under the throats of 6am Central Park dogwalkers for fix money.  The basketball diaries give way to the needle diaries of a junkie consumed with the hunger of his addiction.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Last June my wife and I went<\/a> up to Taos for the annual Taos Poetry Circus.  Jim was a featured reader there.  I had had no experience of Jim Carroll’s poetry, words or music until then.  He read pieces from Void of Course<\/em>, the then yet unreleased and most recent of his books of poetry.  It was published last fall.  He’s now 48 or so, though his years of heroin addiction do not show, except in his eyes.  In my mind he could’ve passed for 35 or even younger.  Jim is clean now.  I don’t know exactly when he kicked, but then again, I don’t know if there really are<\/em> any ex<\/em>-junkies.  They may not cook the powder for a hit any more, but I don’t think they ever lose that junkie-stare — that hunger <\/em>— it never really leaves their eyes.  The hunger stays with them, they only learn to live without satisfying it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having finally obtained Basketball Diaries<\/em> from the Albuquerque Public Library in January having reserved it months earlier, I began to read Jim Carroll’s tales of biddy basketball leagues interlaced with his early and various drug experiences.  Having seen him recently, I became more interested in where he is now poetically, so I made my first purchase on amazon.com and ordered Void of Course<\/em>.  Two writers — one the older former addict, one the younger addict-in-formation — two different writers but without a doubt the same muse.  In between these stages he was a rock star for a while<\/a>.  You might remember a song called “People Who Died”.  It’s very important to the punk generation — circa 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first poem in Void<\/em> is called “Eight Fragments for Kurt Cobain”.  Jim read this one in Taos.  It’s the only piece I truly remember, mainly because having heard it, it rocked me so hard that I couldn’t really take in anything else…<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n

Genius is not a generous thing
In return it charges more interest than any amount
of royalties can cover
And it resents fame
With bitter vengeance<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There is certainly no one on Earth who could relate to Kurt’s situation better than Jim.  Both famous rockers.  Both heroin junkies.  Though these conditions are in Jim’s past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

The guitar claws kept tightening, I guess, on your heart stem.
The loops of feedback and distortion, threaded right through
Lucifer’s wisdom teeth, and never stopped their reverberating
In your mind<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Jim survived what Kurt did not.  Jim did not experience fame and soul-shredding global scrutiny on the level that Kurt did, and maybe this is the only reason Jim is still around.  Jim broke up the Jim Carroll Band in 1985, perhaps just in time.  A true poet is always guided by his inner wisdom.  In his poem Jim gives Kurt posthumous advice…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

You should have talked more with the monkey
He’s always willing to negotiate
I’m still paying him off…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We never stop paying the monkey — any of us.  We all have our monkeys.  Heroin addiction is just an extreme, vicious, brutal and base form of the monkey.  Our monkey is our hunger — whatever we may hunger for.  Art or love or belonging or success or freedom — or in its least extreme, simple survival — these are all hungers.  Only a few of us really try to feed our monkey.  Some don’t try at all but the monkey is still there.  Your hunger is your reason for living, without which you die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

But Kurt…
Didn’t the thought that you would never write
another song
Another feverish line or riff
Make you think twice?
That’s what I don’t understand
Because it’s kept me alive, above any wounds<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I read Basketball Diaries<\/em> over a period of a couple of weeks during the bus ride home from work.  About 10-15 pages a day was all I wanted.  Junkie stories are not what you would call uplifting, though the book isn’t that heavy.  Teenage writers aren’t too gut-wrenching in their descriptions, and there are actually a number of funny stories in the book.  Walking home from the bus stop after reading about Jim degenerating to street mugger, I was thinking that I can’t imagine that kind of need. (I’ve had my drug experiences and been part of that subculture, though in my life I’ve never used a needle, nor even seen<\/em> heroin.)  But it dawned on me that the artist’s hunger to create is like that hunger, or it needs to be, to be effective.  Based on Jim’s words to Kurt, his artistic hunger was actually greater<\/em> than his hunger for smack, one overtaking and subduing the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

If only you hadn’t swallowed yourself into a coma
in Rome…
You could have gone to Florence
And looked into the eyes of Bellini or Rafael’s
Portraits<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps inside them
You could have found a threshold back to beauty’s arms
Where it all began<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Your monkey will kill you if you don’t feed it.  Jim has taught us to remember that it’s up to us how we feed it, what we feed it with, and most importantly, what name we give it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a91999 Wayne Klick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The original article was found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Go to\u00a0PART 2 >><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please visit the author at http:\/\/www.wayneklick.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Wayne Klick10 February 1999 Alright,Buddha getsA backstage passBut his friends have to pay — Jim Carroll, 1998 I just finished reading The Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll.  If you are not familiar with this little volume, it is Jim’s true-life diaries about growing up on the streets of New York City in the early 60’s, while learning … Continue reading Wayne’s Weekly Reader (Part 1)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":4163,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"folder":[39],"class_list":["post-4187","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P9VlUH-15x","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/background\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":0},"title":"Background & Context","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"May 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"These are some special feature areas on individual topics to provide more in-depth information on Jim Carroll. About Jim Carroll Overview of Jim Carroll's life and works (see also Biographies). In Memoriam Acknowledgment and documentation of Carroll's death Behind The Basketball Diaries These pages offer background and context for\u00a0The Basketball\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/carroll-dicaprio-bd-film.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/carroll-dicaprio-bd-film.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/carroll-dicaprio-bd-film.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/carroll-dicaprio-bd-film.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8855,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/jim-carroll-music-and-spoken-word\/spoken-word-lecture-recordings-by-jim-carroll\/basketball-diaries-audio-literature\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":1},"title":"The Basketball Diaries (Audio Literature)","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"March 7, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Cover Art: The Basketball Diaries Audiobook The Basketball DiariesBy:\u00a0Jim CarrollRead by:\u00a0Jim CarrollPublished:\u00a01995Publisher:\u00a0Audio LiteratureFormat:\u00a0audio cassetteCover photo:\u00a0Michael ZagarisMusic by:\u00a0Lenny Kaye In this Audio Literature presentation, consisting of two audiotapes, Jim Carroll reads his cult classic book\u00a0The Basketball Diaries, which he wrote between the ages of 12 and 16, from 1962 to 1966.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Cover Art: The Basketball Diaries Audiobook","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/bdaudio.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":576,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/the-basketball-diaries\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":2},"title":"The Basketball Diaries: Editions","author":"Cassie Carter","date":"August 15, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Carroll wrote his autobiographical tales of \"growing up hip\" on New York's mean streets\" between the ages of 12 and 16, from 1962 to 1966. Carroll earned a scholarship to a posh private school (see\u00a0Trinity Yearbook page) and spent his time playing basketball, stealing, hustling gay men to support his\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/bd1cov.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4003,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/works\/literary-works\/diaries-and-fiction-by-jim-carroll\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":3},"title":"Diaries and Fiction by Jim Carroll","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Petting Zoo: A NovelPublished:\u00a0November 8, 2010By:\u00a0Jim CarrollPublisher:\u00a0VikingCarroll was putting the finishing touches on his first novel,\u00a0The Petting Zoo, when he passed away in 2009. Protagonist Billy Wolfram, a hot young artist in late 1980s NYC, suffers a psychological and spiritual breakdown while viewing the Met's Velasquez retrospective and desperately\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/PettingZooLarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4510,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/academic-studies-of-jim-carroll\/masters-thesis-1990-basketball-diaries-and-forced-entries\/table-of-contents\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":4},"title":"Table of Contents","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Table of ContentsJim Carroll's The Basketball Diaries and Forced EntriesBy Cassie Carter Title Page \u00a0 Table of Contents \u00a0 Abstract \u00a0 Chapter One \u00a0 Chapter Two \u00a0 Chapter Three \u00a0 Chapter Four \u00a0 Appendix \u00a0 Notes \u00a0 Works Cited Abstract Summary of the thesis. Chapter One - Introduction: Shit Into\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4043,"url":"https:\/\/www.catholicboy.com\/WP\/research\/academic-studies-of-jim-carroll\/masters-thesis-1990-basketball-diaries-and-forced-entries\/home-research-academic-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":5},"title":"Thesis TOC","author":"catholicboy.com","date":"January 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Home > Research > Academic Studies Table of Contents Shit Into Gold: Jim Carroll's The Basketball Diaries and Forced Entries By Cassie Carter Title Page If you want to cite this thesis, here's where you find the bibliographic information. Table of Contents This page. Abstract Summary of the thesis. 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