The Tattooed Poets Project: Chris McCreary

Our next tattooed poet is Chris McCreary:

Chris explained:

"This design, an embellished version of the City Lights Books logo, was my first tattoo. At the time, I felt it important to make a permanent vow to poetry on my skin itself, and no design better represented a commitment to challenging, innovative poetry than the City Lights logo. The artist was a jerk, the piece didn't heal that well, and it's certainly faded over time, too. And while I've gone on to get other, more technically impressive tattoos over the years, this one remains my favorite. The tattoo, like my poems themselves, might be cracked and imperfect, but it persists nevertheless, just like the poems themselves."

Chris also sent us this poem:

The Harrowing

When I was a child

I talked like I was taught

to say that signifiers

form a complex

web. Then I became

a man & placed a postage

stamp of a famous Modernist

on my Verizon bill. So

Jacques Derrida where

is the solace for I

am balding &

hemorrhoidal. See I saw

the oblivion & when I stopped

to drink it in, I missed dibs

on the astrolabe

& so was left to throw

rocks at wind chimes, torch

the observatory, bury it all elbow down

& salt the ground as after-

thought. Jacques

Lacan, why do I bother. I was soiled

before I even began & still could

care less how we harrow

unless it meant to thresh

as in limen, this boring

earth turned vortex

through which I might finally

try to tesser.

~ ~ ~

Chris McCreary is author of three books of poems. His fourth collection, [ neüro / måntic ], should be forthcoming in early 2015. Along with Jenn McCreary, he co-edits ixnay press (www.ixnaypress.com).

Thanks to Chris for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.