On the first day by Scot Young

on the first day

of kindergarten
she told the teacher
her daddy choked out
her mommy last night
on the second day
she said the same thing
and now her mommy’s
eyes were black

her book bag reeked
so bad of marijuana
it was hung in the hall
when she was asked
what she wanted to be
when she grew up
she said not
a mommy

the fresh out of college
kindergarten teacher
came in my office
crying
said i’m not sure
i can handle
this
i said remember
at inservice
when i said you all
were here for a reason
and that people were
put in your path
for a reason…

that little girl
is your reason

glasser’s motivation theory or being told you can’t is about the same thing by Scot Young

william glasser derived
motivation worked best
from the inside out as
an internal drive for success
or sense of purpose.
intrinsic vs extrinsic
my high school counselor
said i wasn’t college material
i should go build cars
at ford or gm or
work construction

so i did

when i did go to college
it was motivated
by the opposite sex
when i got married for
love everyone thought
and said
it would only last a year
that was 40 years now
and those people are
now gone

later family and a sense
i needed to provide more
be more
so i returned to those halls
seeking more

there i was told i needed two
semesters of As to be admitted
to the teaching program
and with 100 hours at a
perfect 2.0
and never having more
than a few As in that
previous life
would be impossible.
i answered but i didn’t have to
before

so i did

before glasser my k-12
teachers said not working
up to his potential
does not play well with others

after a certificate of completion
from the school
of hard knocks and
three college
degrees i found those early
educators were at least

half right

 

All Around Cowboy

“Scot Young may not want to hear this, but he isn’t a cowboy, not in the movie poster sense anyway. This book, his first, is the history of the man he’s become, stronger than his heroes Richard Brautigan and Charles Bukowski, educating young people, publishing countless others without thought given to personal reward, often helping them when they’re not in a position to help themselves, opening his heart and sharing a great love of literature, Scot Young is a great poet, but anyone can do that, he’s an even greater man, so I take it back, maybe he is a cowboy, but let’s be clear, John Wayne would never have the balls to be Scot Young.”

-John Dorsey, Author of The Prettiest Girl at the Dance

 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/all-around-cowboy-scot-young/1138992846?ean=9781952411533

 

Also available on Amazon

 

“I find myself reading and rereading the poems in Scot Young’s amazing book, All Around Cowboy. Scot renders the fundamental “stuff ” of life and death in a way that is poignant yet never sentimental. He grew up in a hard place, much as I did. I can identify with his experiences. His lines concerning beer joints, rifles, car wrecks, country music, love and sex, initiation, rock-and-roll, whiskey, drugs, recovery, surviving, and, ultimately, thriving always ring true. This is a book of extraordinary honesty. It’s also a remarkable achievement in terms of consistency of tone and style. I highly recommend All Around Cowboy.”

-W.K. (Kip) Stratton, author of The Wild Bunch and Betrayal Creek

 

 

 

A Deep & Gorgeous Thirst by Hosho McCreesh

Under normal or sober circumstances a blurb or a book review would follow on a new book not quite out yet or any book by that matter.  In this case after reading over 250 pages of McCreesh’s drunk poems this poem came out…

your buddy hands you
a book of poems
you switch from cheap wine
to guinness and back again
because you are a virgin
because the more you read
the more intoxicated you get
anticipation builds
like your first time
in the back seat
or the tequila whores in juarez
you turn the pages faster
kamikazes lined up
stretch down the bar
until you’re ready to pass out..

but you don’t pass out
you drink another  &
develop a deep
 and gorgeous thirst

____________

…granted not quite a review of his new work published by Artistically Declined Press   but I guess more of a tribute to the style, to  the talent and courage to break away from the artistic boundaries that identified a Hosho Mc Creesh poem in  the past.  There are no labels found here. It is an  unmarked brand.  It is new.  It is fresh as the born date on a bottle of Bud.  This book is breaking ranks.  Drink up.

I thought I was finished with this zine, I guess not–credit McCreesh.

Scot

The Rusty Truck Says Thanks Ya’ll

scotty’s birthday

began the new year
with ham and beans
sweet cornbread &
a cuban cigar
turned 58 today
that thing splake calls
gray beard being chased
by ratbastard time

today i almost complete
the last issue of an old friend
with some old friends
from an archived print version
2010 with a last
feature to follow asap
of an artist and a poet and a new friend

so for now the plan is to farm organic
write some
paint some
take a griswold vacation across
america
and love my bride of so many years
like there ain’t no tomorrow.

1-1-2013

Rusty Truck Celebration in San Francisco

Rusty Truck at Bitchez Brew III

Brautigan Meets Bukowski and the Art of F.N. Wright

This chap was a labor of love that took 39 years to write after first reading It’s Raining in Love as a high school sophomore.  When new generations find Brautigan, it makes me smile.  The cover art for this chap was created by F.N. Wright.  The first ten of this limited edition contained the art of Wright inspired by the theme of this book.  This chapbook will be included in the Brautigan Library in Vancouver, Washington, where it will become a permanent, interactive exhibit at the Clark County Historical Museum thanks to FN and John Barber.  One copy also went to Brautigan’s daughter, Ianthe.  Thank you to those that purchased.

The Book of Jack

Art by F.N. Wright

Click on Jack–for best viewing go to fullscreen and use arrow that appears on the right to turn pages.

Catherine B. Young, 1922-1993

Happy Birthday Mom

when angels visit

it is usually when
i come home
walk through the door
of yesterday
or sometimes
late at night
when for no reason
i wake up
startled
heart beating too fast
and catch the brief
smell of cigarettes

i listen
sound
of wind
that rattles in the attic
or that one spot
that squeaks  when the cat
walks across the kitchen floor

trying
to make sense of this
i doze back off
content
knowing you were
just checking in