the outlaw poetry network

Sunday, January 4th, 2009...8:07 pm

john yamrus | i don’t know what it was

i don’t know what it was

either
the crowd was wrong,

or
i was wrong…

or both.

but,
it just

wasn’t working.

i read
poem after poem.

nobody laughed…
nobody clapped…
and i couldn’t blame them.

i was shit,
they were shit,
and it was all
falling apart.

the walls stunk
and the floor was cracked.

when it was over
i sold some books,
grabbed my coat
and ran.

i got in the car
and put in a cd
of me reading on another night.

that night
they got my jokes,
they loved my poems
and i was
handsome
and tall.

the world made sense.

but it didn’t matter,
because that was then
and this is now.

so i took out the cd
and put one in by
Hank Williams.

it was a live recording
and Hank was good.

Hank was a god
and in his entire career
he never
ever
had a bad night…

did he?

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2 Comments

Filed under John Yamrus

Tags: John Yamrus, Outlaw Poetry, Poetry

2 Comments

Todd Moore
January 4th, 2009 at 11:07 pm

I’ve been there and I’ve done that. The normal reading audience for me, except for a few close friends who show, usually consists of three winos and a dog. And, I count myself lucky that the dog is breathing.

Great poem.

Todd Moore
ryan
January 5th, 2009 at 6:28 am

We all have bad days man. Its a good Poem, with real meaning. There’s way to many people that want to play at being a poet, without letting any real emotions show.