s.a. griffin | confessions of a door to door autographed outlaw bible salesman

guns, knives, speed, weed, bald ass lies,
fast cars, dice, junk, mad sex, porn and drunken orgies
will never make anyone an honest outlaw
however, any or all might bring on a sad liver,
a failed kidney, an exploding ticker, rusty veins, no credit,
a flipped wig, a bitter ex and/or a
same sex love affair with the law

most of what is sacred in our
bastard world of
poetry and small press
is not and never was

cool

a cultural malignancy
and artistic anomaly of
puking conformity

there are giddy exceptions tho
generally predicated upon single expression
or vision and nothing else

what makes cool is the
same thing that
might make hip

it just is

like levy of Cleveland
simply who and what they are
outside the margins and maverick
by necessity

whose only victory might be to declare
what would be their genius

all those that follow with their nostrils flaring up their
false gods fetid asses in search of lost cities
are foolish fashion mongers pressing themselves into
unforgiving clichés

I cannot remember where
HST or Bukowski ever
wrote or said, this is the way

mostly what they said if anything
was straight ahead, this is my way
like Anais inside the
top down of her soft parade

the mystery and magic of the grape
will not make you a writer
posing in black ether with your hands
jammed into your pockets
leaning against bearded time
will not make you a poet

like most everyone else
in this changing city I am a sincere liar
guilty of some small
crimes of fashion

this is one of them

a low rider on the apocalypse
haunted by long haired dreams of being
born again as a rock star

honestly, I don’t know what
makes a poet, but they
are among us

a little outlaw dancing
in every one

from Numbskull Sutra published by Rank Stranger Press.

Cover Art: S.A. Griffin

S.A. Griffin | Photo: Mark Savage | Car: ’59 Cadillac Sedan deVille

S.A. Griffin is a crash vampire living, loving and working in Los Angeles. His most recent collection is Numbskull Sutra (Rank Stranger Press, 2007). A Cadillac wrangling son of The Lone Star State, raised by alien gamblers and Venus on the lamb in once liberal northern California where the palm tree meets the pine, S.A. Griffin has been published widely in many small press magazines online and off. He is the author of three books of poetry — A One Legged Man Standing Casually On Hollywood Blvd. Smoking A Cigarette (Shelf Life Press, 1989), Heaven Is One Long Naked Dance (Rose of Sharon Press, 1993) and Unborn Again (Phony Lid Books, 2001) and the forthcoming Point Blank Verse (Temple of Man/Black Ace). His most recent release is Duckwalking Thru The Apocalypse (Bottle of Smoke Press, 2003). He is the co-editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1999) which was awarded the Firecracker Award as best poetry anthology.

“Rules of the Road” is an ode to the infamous Carma Bums by S.A. Griffin, clip from an upcoming documentary about the ensemble of Los Angeles poets. Shot on location in 2004 in Atlanta, GA by Sherri Larsen and combined with footage from their 1996 experimental film.

S.A. Griffin has been named best performance/poet by The L.A. Weekly, and was also a contributing editor to The Underground Guide to L.A. (Manic d Press) which remained on the Los Angeles Times best seller list for nine weeks. Co-editor/publisher for (Sic) Vice & Verse and The Fool, he has also served on the editorial staff for Shattersheet, The Moment and Damaged Goods, and has been a contributing writer for The L.A. Weekly, Angry Thoreauan and Lummox Journal. In August of 2002, he published a poem on a billboard at the corner of Sunset/Hollywood and Hillhurst Ave. in Los Angeles as a form of protest against the then impending war in Iraq. In May 2004, he travelled to Atlanta, Ga. to film a documentary and record a cd, Armageddon Outta Here! with his longtime poetry performance pals, The Carma Bums, the trip marking 20 years of performing together. The Carma Bums are also the subject of The Luxurious Tigers of Obnoxious Agreement, a film by Bruce Dickson, produced in part by Viggo Mortensen with music by members of X and Double Naught Spy Car. S.A. Griffin is a Vietnam era vet, father and husband, and is an award winning stage and on camera actor having appeared in over 200 films, television shows and commercials. Aside from acting and writing, he presently teaches film acting and cold reading at AFI in Hollywood.

S.A. Griffin is the Co-Editor of The Outlaw Bible of american poetry.

Poet S.A. Griffin in his feature appearance at The World Stage, Leimert Park, Los Angeles, 3/28/07.

0 Replies to “s.a. griffin | confessions of a door to door autographed outlaw bible salesman”

  1. S.A. you nail it as always!!! love the poem. being uncool as opposed to being cool takes no effort, yer right, it just is. hands jammed in your pockets or in yer nose, doesnt matter cuz sharks swim in these phony small press waters and you deserve to be eaten if yer not real. you my friend are real, effortless and kind.

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