in memory of my father, lee marvin
sometimes
dad
it is the way it is
dad
one man is your father
and one is your son
dad
one is one and one it the other
dad
not like genetics and frogs and biology and spotted mice
dad
but
dad
elegance and hope and pain and features
like
elegance
or
hope
or
pain
or
features
dad
one mother but many fathers
dad?
one apartment but many keys
dad?
none that fit the lock
none that open the doors
none that help
when dazed and confused and lying before the door
drunk and unable to stand
(not once dad. but more than once. dad)
dad-
i don’t even know what we’re talking about
– dad
and i’m the one talking dad
you are my father and i am my son
created in your likeness
for resolution and grace
restitution
evolution
mass production
near destruction
extinction
extatic
eratic
trees in the attic
dad
and in that case
dad
i need you
not as an image or a passing notion
but
dad
as a hat
upon which my head
that’s all dad
that and a memory of shriner’s circus
where the ape looked so real
but he was a man
and we were all so terrified
but it was just a man in a costume
and
dad
that’s all it was
illusion.
Michael “Mike” Klumpp Born: New Orleans, Louisiana. Educations: New Orleans Academy, University of Louisiana Lafayette, Dallas Theological Seminary. Degrees and Special Training: B.A. English, M.A. Biblical Studies, Holds Black Belts in 6 different disciplines, 5th Dan Amerian Mixed Martial Arts, Meteorology School of the Air Force. Awards: Most Valuable Athlete, Best Supporting Actor, Numerous Poetry Awards including Pushcard Nomination 2003, Who’s Who in America’s Teachers 1993, 1994, Coached 1990 State Semi-final Football Team Christway Academy, Louisiana Medal of Excellence, Several Gold Medals in Martial Arts. Career Highlights: President of Mike Klumpp and Associates Sales in Dallas, Texas, Founding Owner of ASB Karate in Texas, Kansas and Kenya, Founding Director of EASEORG East African Service and Empowerment – Mission Agency serving East Africa from our offices in Nairobi, Author of Single Dad’s Survival Guide, Founded the Marstellar Bray Arts Center in Dighton, Kansas, City Council Person and Economic Developer for Dighton, Kansas and Lane County, Resident Artistic Director of the Uvalde Grand Opera House, Lead Teacher High School English and Bible at Christway Academy in Duncanville, Texas, Teaching “Matthew” Dallas Theological Seminary Lay Institute, Team Teaching Dallas Theological Seminary “Effective Pulpit Delivery” with Doctor Reg Grant and Doctor John Reed, Performing and Writing for Howard Hendricks at Dallas Theological Seminary and the Center for Christian Leadership, Building a Hospital and Bringing Electicity to the community of Lemoru in the Ziwa Disctict of Central Kenya, Pastoring Churches in Dallas, Texas, Dighton, Kansas and Hong Kong.
The Sons of Lee Marvin
Members
Besides Jarmusch, the founding members of the society are said to include the actors and musicians Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Richard Boes. Musician Nick Cave, whom Jarmusch knew when living in Berlin, was inducted as a member after having been mistaken for a brother of the director. Director John Boorman is an honorary member, having been presented with one of the society’s elaborate Waits-designed business cards. Others rumored to be members include Thurston Moore, Iggy Pop, Benjamin Biolay, Josh Brolin and Neil Young though none have been formally recognized by the society, which refuses to disclose its inner workings to the public. The society meets occasionally, supposedly to watch Lee Marvin films together.
Mythology
The society’s members perpetuate the joke in the media. Tom Waits described it to Rolling Stone in 1986 as “somewhere between the Elks Club and the Academy Awards“, and claimed to have met Jarmusch at an annual meeting of the New York chapter. When asked about the society by friend and collaborator Luc Santein a 1989 interview, Jarmusch commented “I’m not at liberty to divulge information about the organization, other than to tell you that it does exist. I can identify three other members of the organization: Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Richard Boes … You have to have a facial structure such that you could be related to, or be a son of, Lee Marvin. There are no women, obviously, in the organization. We have communiques and secret meetings. Other than that, I can’t talk about it.” Jarmusch revealed in a 1992 interview that the real son of Lee Marvin, Christopher, had objected to the existence of the organization in an encounter with Waits at a bar:
Six months ago Tom Waits was in a bar in somewhere like Sonoma County in Northern California, and the bartender said, ”You’re Tom Waits, right? A guy over there wants to talk to you.”
Tom went over to this dark corner booth and the guy sitting there said, ”Sit down, I want to talk to you.”
So Tom started getting a little aggressive: ”What the fuck do you want to talk to me about? I don’t know you.”
And the guy said, ”What is this bullshit about the Sons of Lee Marvin?”
Tom said, ”Well, it’s a secret organization and I’m not supposed to talk about it.”
The guy said, ”I don’t like it.”
Tom said, ”What’s it to you?”
The guy said, ”I’m Lee Marvin’s son”—and he really was. He thought it was insulting, but it’s not, it’s completely out of respect for Lee Marvin.
— Jim Jarmusch, in interview with Film Comment, June 1992
Christopher Marvin, a professional drummer and the only son of Lee Marvin, featured as a guest artist on the song “Cold Water” from Waits’ album Mule Variations (1999).
truly, truth in a flash, a brother in the society
Your poetry moved me with its creativity and beauty when I first read it back in 2000 and it moves me still. Wonderful poem!