ENTRIES:
Close Encounters—The Interview
Commencement
Putting the Bite into Cowboy Poetry
Newsflash: 01-13-08
Newsflash: 11-28-2007
Proclamation/Preview
Newsflash: 10-04-2007
Making Wood
Postscript to Making Wood
Tom Russell/Cowboys & Indians
Western Horseman Review
Tom Russell review
Ray March review
Red Shuttleworth
Happy Birthday Paul!
(News?) Flash: 4-24-2007
© Paul Zarzyski. All rights reserved. These words may not be reprinted or reposted without the author's written permission.
(News?) Flashes & Fast Dashes: 4-24-2007—#1
I’m into numerological cues and connections and, thus, my new year’s resolution for 2006 went something like this: I vow, during the year in which I turn 55, double nickels, to rough-out 55 fresh poems and song lyrics. It didn’t happen—not even close. Simply put, Life, hiding behind roadside greenery, bushwhacked me far too often—thrust its thick oak broom handle into the UniPoet’s unicycle spokes with every other rotation of the wheel. I wrote little and wrote mostly poorly, but, luckily, was able to validate the year’s creative worthiness based on four bountiful shifts in the Open Path Music studio in San Jose, the result of which are a brace of CDs, COLLISIONS OF RECKLESS LOVE and ROCK-‘n’-ROWEL. I also wrote a new song with Wylie Gustafson—Rodeo To The Bone—which he recorded on his latest album, BUCKING HORSE MOON, the title cut, a Tom Russell-Zarzo co-write. The disc includes yet a third collaboration, Whispering Hope, which Ian Tyson and I broke to ride back in the late ‘80s. To punch these honors up a ZZillion notches, Wylie dedicated the record to the memory of the GREAT western artist, Joelle Smith, and, in the same breath, to, yup, yours truly. So 2006 proved one of the best resolution-busting years of my life, I suppose, now that I say all this aloud in print.
Nevertheless, I failed my objective miserably, I do not DO failure all that well, and, therefore, I have little choice but to believe heartily in re-rides, rematches, second chances. On February 7th, 2007 I revised and simplified last year’s resolution. Coming off a trio of excruciatingly doldrumy post-Elko-Gathering re-entry days, I skyrocketed off the canvas at the count of 8 (my favorite number), took the flame-thrower to all shrubbery along my UniPoet unicycle route, slammed the door on correspondence and The Bizz, took the phone off the hook, and resolved to revisit and rewrite and breathe new life into numerous green-broke poems—some dating back 20 years—hibernating in folders and notebooks. The goal was to show up at this desk and shoulder-in to the work 55 of the coming 60 days, granting myself absolution for the 5 days I’d be away from home. I rationalized that I’m still 55 until 5-25 and those double nickels, damnit, are significant in light of my 5-25-51 date of birth, so I deserve this second chance, right? Good! You agree! On April 7th, I accomplished my 55th writing shift, 60 days later, as planned. Then I put in three stiff additional days to counterpoise a few mornings I perceived as weak-spirited. I put a 69 (the year I graduated from Hurley High) piece manuscript—8 sections—in the mail to a publisher on the 3rd, and have been working on a new poem-lyric the past seven
mornings since. It’s titled CRAVING 8s—A Tribute To Chris LeDoux. I’m planning to test-pilot it this coming Saturday on stage at the 25th Anniversary of COWBOY SONGS & RANGE BALLADS in Cody, Wyoming.
But back to the manuscript, the working title of which is ROADWORK IN THE BONEYARD. It’s a tome-‘n’-a-half—way too big. We’ll whittle ‘er down—maybe to 55 poems! —if, that is, the publisher is at all interested to begin with. I’ve described the overall sensibility as in-your-face, testosterone-fueled, poetry-as-contact-sport. Yes, socio-political; yes, demonstratively opinionated; nope, not for the faint-of-heart. I exaggerate, it goes without saying—me, being the Ayatollah of Hyperbole (I just ate 50 pies!). I’ll flash a few your way in the coming months—let you decide for yourselves. I’ve included plenty of humor, I think, to dilute/temper the acerbity.
More later—hope you’ll tune back in now and again.
Thanks, Paul / Zarzo
