A MAN ON FIRE

at 71 years old, there is no light burning brighter, shining stronger than this poet, essayist, novelist, howler in the midnight blue. he is a shouter of the individual, the outcast, the renegade, the desperado, the down and out blues monger, the assassin on your tv screen, the peckinpah killers, the alley rat characters of his youth, the gone outsider dancing hobo, the scratched celluloid of a b movie, the dark theater of his mind. he is the leader of a revolution that is about anti-revolution, a revolution that is about turning your back on everything, a revolution that is about honing yourself into a creative fire that burns down everything, a revolution that has the kiss of death firmly planted in the center of mad love, a revolution that is about the abandon of marginality, a revolution that is about finding your own shadow that is following you, a revolution that is about reducing everything into the immortality of the moment, a revolution that is about becoming yourself, a revolution that is about attacking relentlessly the attackers, a revolution that says fuck you very much i’m going my own way, a revolution that reduces everything to a single word: outlaw. to live inside the poem is to live outside the law. to live inside the poem is to be an outlaw.

the way
i write
is strictly
fuck you
no cap
ital letters
no punc
tuation
the words
jammed
together
or all
smashed
up like bro
ken glass
crushed
pop cans
& used
condoms
the ameri
can sen
tence is
either a
stutter
or a
scream
& i’m
waiting
to watch
it explode

todd moore is his own best example of an outlaw. for he is ablaze. and he is shooting shock waves of bullet words. he is a man on fire. and in his flame, he is touching all the great outlaws of the past. he is honing in on the stutter and the scream of james dean. one of the greatest outlaw events is the death of james dean. for it takes one back to ancient archetypes, redefining them, reinventing them. the hero as lone wolf. the hero as artist. the hero in his loneness seeking and experiencing mad love. the transformation of the hero through his search, his journey. the obsession with speed. the obsession with transmutation through speed. the endless appetite for passionate experience. the endless appetite for going beyond oneself. at the very peak of his creative gifts: death, like the other side of the coin of a kiss. at the very peak of his creative gifts: death, giving immortality to youth, to the new, to the velocity of his vision, death giving immortality to the fact that if you are not ablaze you are dead. todd moore is the pure blaze of outlaw.

james dean reinvented everything. he reinvented his speech through his own unique dialect, full of mutters and stutters and screams and primal yells. he reinvented his speech through the silence of gestures. better than a silent movie star, james dean’s primal gestures, shoulders ashrug, shoulders hunched, bleak syllables biting, he walked the walk and he talked the talk, a neanderthal language that was utterly sophisticated. a primitive. a barbarian at the gate. in a language, a body of gestures of reinvented sophistication. his hair, his gait, his speed, his endless exploration of everything from bullfighting to racecar driving. there was not enough time in the day. there was not enough time in the night. and so he went up in the flames of his porsche. and out of the ashes of that california evening a new archetype, an old archetype, a new archetype with ancient reverberations: outlaw. saying, of course: if you cannot reinvent yourself, you are dead.

no one
knows
how dark
the wolf
is until
the night
begins
to move

to live inside the poem is to live outside the law. to live inside the poem is to be an outlaw. the poem and the outlaw. the outlaw and the poem. to catch a glimpse of the other side. this is what todd moore provides. james dean allowed us to catch a glimpse of the real actor in his first scene in a movie: atop a train in east of eden. james dean and the train. the train and james dean. two archetypes in sync. todd moore and the poem. the poem and todd moore. two archetypes in sync. for the poem opens a window, opens a door into a different kind of perception, a different kind of sensation, a different kind of experience. the outlaw makes us see the world in a different way. to live inside the poem is to live outside the law. to live inside the poem is to be an outlaw.

whether it is james dean going up in flames at the age of 24 or todd moore brandishing a new fire at the age of 71, the message is the same: find your outlaw fire and set the day and night to burning. and like the straight razor blues, the poem is about transformation, transmutation, the poem is about taking on a life of its own. to live inside the poem is to live outside the law. to live inside the poem is to be an outlaw.

…all that
danger
slapped
over more
danger i
wanna wear
a hat w/a
bullet hole
thru it
& have
all the dark
ness in
there
rushing
& spilling
& slopping
out
i wanna
have so
much class
i can
look death
in the eye
& say
fuck you

can a 71-year-old writing poetry have the same kind of intensity, the same kind of edge as a young james dean making ingenious movies and thumbing his nose at hollywood? can a 71-year-old writing poetry have the same kind of intensity, the same kind of edge as a young hank williams, a young robert johnson, a young elvis presley? can he change his art form in the way that these three changed their music venues? can a 71-year-old writing poetry attain that piece of the fire that burns up the page? that same gigantic intensity found in the solos of miles davis and john coltrane? that same kind of blood edge that drove john dillinger and billy the kid? to live inside the poem is to live outside the law. to live inside the poem is to be an outlaw.

…mason
opened his
mouth to
say some
thing & it
looked as
tho the
skin on
his cheeks
was trying
to crawl
off his
bones

where in all the waves of time do you find the outlaw? where in all the mirrors of space do you find the poem? where will the poet and the poem surpass the power of the actor and the movie? where will the poet and the poem surpass the power of the singer and the song? where will the poet and the poem surpass the power of the storyteller and the story? in todd moore you find the actor and the movie, the singer and the song, the story and the storyteller. but more than that, you find the essential elements of the poem and the poet: the transmutation of language into a fire in the blood, the transmutation of language into a whole different wave of vision, the transmutation of language into an unveiling of pure passion. to live inside the poem is to live outside the law. to live inside the poem is to be an outlaw. by Tony Moffeit

Blind Whiskey & The Straight Razor Blues. By Todd Moore. 2008. 43pp; Pa; Iniquity Press/Vendetta Books, POB 54, Manasquan, NJ 08736.This and other Todd Moore books are available here…

some related articles are listed below:

1. tony moffeit | the outlaw revolution
2. tony moffeit | shaking the bones
3. tony moffeit | outlaw
4. tony moffeit | a revolution of consciousness: review on dead reckoning by todd moore
5. tony moffeit | scorching the darkness: the channeling of dillinger
6. tony moffeit | american blues outlaw poetry anarchic dream
7. tony moffeit | outlaw: the roots
8. tony moffeit | it is the first day of 2010
9. tony moffeit | outlaw consciousness
10. tony moffeit | I’ll never get out of this night alive
11. tony moffeit | renegade
12. tony moffeit | spirits
13. tony moffeit | sleepwalking in the void: a review on crudely mistaken for life
14. todd moore | cold fire, molten ice
15. todd moore | stealing the fire, stealing the shadow
16. tony moffeit | a piece of america’s heart
17. todd moore | working on my duende
18. todd moore | stories, ashes, and fire
19. todd moore | writing poetry, burning the house
20. todd moore | dancing in the fire with s.a. griffin
21. todd moore | outlaw bonfires and dillinger’s blood
22. todd moore | reading the movies, watching the poems
23. todd moore | that terrible shaking in the blood
24. todd moore | rd armstrong | reads
25. donald lev | fire
26. todd moore | blood and fate under mad stars
27. john dorsey & s.a. griffin | the dead zone trilogy by todd moore
28. todd moore | dillinger posed
29. todd moore | leaving a little blood on the floor
30. todd moore | the volcanic death song of baby face nelson
31. todd moore | damage, genius, courage
32. todd moore | burning the…
33. todd moore | dillinger, outlaws, writing, and murder
34. todd moore | geeshie wiley
35. todd moore | fucking
36. todd moore | reading the dark
37. todd moore | when…
38. todd moore | stealing dillinger, becoming an outlaw
39. todd moore | billy the kid in the theater of blood
40. todd moore | dynamite
41. todd moore | the dark country
42. todd moore | just
43. todd moore | the last good reading from the outlaw dark
44. todd moore | nightmare splender
45. kell robertson | the goofy goddess on the wall
46. todd moore | gimme danger
47. todd moore | the nightmare of poetry is war
48. todd moore | coyote death mask outlaw
49. todd moore | i want it all and i want it now
50. todd moore | machine guns, guernica, and the outlaw poem
51. todd moore | the exalted scar and the annointed cure
52. todd moore | love & death & teeth in the blood
53. todd moore | shadow of the outlaw
54. todd moore | I work the shattered line
55. todd moore | blind whiskey and the straight razor blues
56. todd moore | burning
57. todd moore | the long way home and the blood on the floor
58. todd moore | falling asleep in outlaw country
59. todd moore | what are the stakes in american poetry?
60. todd moore | all the dark talking to the angel of death
61. todd moore | the coyote trickster and the wooden gun
62. todd moore | the murder and the ecstasy of the everlasting dream
63. todd moore | mythic blood, psychic movies, outlaw dreams
64. todd moore | all the way to the fame
65. todd moore | death rides the blood
66. todd moore | nightmare frenzy
67. todd moore | danger beyond danger, where the outlaw lives
68. todd moore | walking around in the blood
69. todd moore | the dillinger convergence: three ways of dreaming the outlaw
70. todd moore | the blood of america
71. todd moore | the question
72. todd moore | the great american poem
73. todd moore | working the outlaw wind
74. todd moore | the machine gun blood of the poem
75. todd moore | scorched trinity: dillinger, billie, and machine gun love
76. todd moore | the sentences are burning
77. todd moore | american metaphors, visions, and nightmares
78. todd moore | falling in love with danger
79. todd moore | living at the movies with dillinger and depp
80. todd moore | outlaw poetry, psychic damage, the survival of wounds
81. todd moore | i don’t want
82. road/house | chapbook verite editions
83. todd moore | hemingway
84. todd moore | I don’t
85. todd moore | the nightmare talking
86. todd moore | dreaming the dream, paying the price
87. todd moore | the fevers and sweats of the nightmare poem
88. todd moore | largo slapped
89. todd moore | machine guns, movies, culture, dreams
90. todd moore | going to meet the outlaw
91. todd moore | gary goude and that crushed rotting dawg
92. todd moore | road testing the kid
93. todd moore | how come
94. todd moore | this
95. todd moore | dillinger stood…
96. todd moore | the name is dillinger
97. todd moore | writing dillinger in the eye of the hurricane
98. todd moore | the fever of writing
99. todd moore | dillinger was
100. todd moore | everything changes when dillinger arrives
101. todd moore | dying with dillinger in the corpse is dreaming
102. todd moore | tyler’s
103. todd moore | the outlaw poet and those killer eyes
104. todd moore | what I want to know
105. raindog | fire and rain
106. todd moore | the shattered hemingway sentence
107. todd moore | the blood of the poet
108. todd moore | hustling for drinks, praying for lines
109. wolfgang carstens | blood, energy and darkness: a review of dead reckoning
110. todd moore | we cut
111. todd moore | the second
112. todd moore | the treehouse reading
113. todd moore | the last good movie I made was a poem
114. todd moore | a conversation with raindog
115. todd moore | parker shot
116. todd moore | the sign of the outlaw
117. todd moore | the kid
118. lost? & found!
119. todd moore | patrick mckinnon and the drunken shamanic
120. todd moore | the old man’s waiting
121. todd moore | and the gunfight at dodge city
122. todd moore | the perfect
123. todd moore | outlaw
124. todd moore | lucky
125. todd moore | fighting death for the poem
126. todd moore | the dark side of america
127. todd moore | into the open madness: the poetry of kell robertson
128. todd moore | play it & judy christopher
129. todd moore | the rat’s blood had glued my hand shut
130. todd moore | crudely mistaken for life: the books of wounds
131. todd moore | i’ll play dillinger
132. todd moore | scratching it out street level for the poem
133. s.a. griffin | walt whitman’s beard
134. todd moore | night blood, red hands
135. todd moore | outlaw poetry
136. todd moore | dillinger, death, and the high mountain air
137. todd moore | devouring the shadow
138. todd moore | coming out of…
139. todd moore | jerry’s old
140. alex gildzen | outlaw dreams
141. todd moore | dave roskos, the editor’s editor
142. todd moore | chasing jack micheline’s shadow
143. todd moore | dillinger, the coyote, and the wolf
144. bill nevin | todd moore, cinematic poet on the outlaw’s trail
145. todd moore | how to survive the coming night: the poetry of john yamrus
146. todd moore | taking on bukowski
147. lawrence welsh | skull highway
148. todd moore | instructions for reading dead reckoning
149. todd moore | blood calls to blood
150. todd moore | shotgun blues
151. todd moore | washed in the blood of the outlaw moon
152. todd moore | love, longing, dillinger, disaster
153. todd moore | inventing the nightmare
154. mera wolf & todd moore | read
155. s.a. griffin | for todd moore’s 70th
156. todd moore | i write in the blood
157. todd moore | what’s
158. todd moore & john macker
159. todd moore
160. todd moore | the house
161. todd moore | black rain
162. todd moore | pure blood primal: the poetry of kell robertson
163. rd armstrong | todd moore and lummox press
164. todd moore | jack wilson
165. todd moore | the nightmare of reading
166. todd moore | the central avenue rundown jazz radio show
167. todd moore | the mystery
168. bone | poetry by todd moore & rd armstrong
169. s.a.griffin | the way of the pen
170. todd moore | dillinger and the riddle of the wooden gun
171. gary goude | sad lives
172. todd moore | saturday night desperate, don winter, and the black mitten of poetry
173. wolfgang carstens | todd moore | boom
174. gary goude | more poems
175. mark weber | for todd moore’s birthday party
176. francEyE | call
177. todd moore | gary goude | blood on blood
178. alex gildzen | street of poets tucson
179. todd moore | dillinger stepped
180. todd moore | lisa was…
181. todd moore | tasting the blood
182. todd moore | cindy was