Our next tattooed poet is Vincent Francone. Vincent has two amazing tattoos on his upper arms:
Vincent explains:
"I got the angel tattoo first. It was meant to be a caricature of my (then) girlfriend (now my wife). A year later, I decided to get a demonic version. I was looking to create a theme-- the angel on one shoulder, the devil on the other. That sums up my life-- always fighting to decide what to do with two distinct voices in each ear pulling me in opposite directions. The shop for both was Deluxe Tattoo in Chicago. The artist was Tim Biedron."Incidentally, work by Tim Biedron has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.
Vincent sent us the following poem:
A True Account of Talking to the
Sun in Chicago
The sun
wouldn’t take my call
at
first, so I insisted,
sent a
friend request,
bombarded
him with emails
until
finally, out of frustration,
he
relented.
“Francone,
what is it?
What’s
so goddamn important
you have
bug me
while
I’m working,
which,
in case you didn’t realize,
is
always?”
“Well…”
I had nothing
to ask,
I just wanted
to be in
contact,
but the
sun insisted:
“Let me
guess,
you’re
hoping to be
the next
Mayakovsky
or
O’Hara
the
first two poets I spoke to
but—sorry
to be
the
bearer of bad news—
lots of
minor poets
have
invoked me in
their
minor poems
and
pretended to speak with me
so I no
longer have much
to say
to poets
minor or
major.”
I was
dejected,
as you
can imagine,
but
pressed regardless
like a
stubborn dog:
“Couldn’t
you
advise
me anyway?”
“Sure,”
he said:
“go and
get your MFA.
It might
be folly,
and a
lot of cash
it’ll
cost but it’s worthwhile
if
you’re into writing balderdash.”
“I’ve
tried,” I lied,
“but it
was a drag,
more
times than not
I wrote
what my
professors
wanted,
which
was a lot of rot.”
“I’ve
seen it,
your
grad school verse,
and I’ve
seen your others;
you
could do a lot worse
than
write what your
professors
want.
But you
could probably
do
better, but
who
cares?
Poems
won’t change
either
of us.
And
there’s so damned many!
Who can
read them all?
I used
to keep up
but I’m
tired—
too much
being written, I’m
overwhelmed.
Francone,
why add
to the deluge?”
“Because,”
I said,
“where
else
but in a
poem
would I
get to use
the word
deluge?”
He
rolled his eyes,
said:
“That’s the trouble
right
there: when
in
everyday conversation
would
you use deluge?
Never—so
why put it
in a
poem?
To make
your poem seem
like a
poem?
That’s
the cheapest
poet’s
trick.
It only further
alienates
the audience,
which is
a small lot
to start
with.
Better
stick to straight
talk,
nothing so
polysyllabic
and no
tortured symbols!
Keep it
direct,
keep it
pure,
just say
what you feel
and try
to feel something
other
than self-pity,
dull as
all get out—
don’t
bore the poor world
with
your self-doubt.”
I had no
retort— no more
to
state, having indeed
done as
the sun said
not to
do too often,
written
bad poems
riddled
with ennui
that I
had no right
to have pretended
to feel;
I wrote
them because
that’s
what I thought
a poet
did—that’s
what I
was taught.
“Hogwash,”
said the sun,
reading
my thoughts.
“Of
course I read your
thoughts—a
good bit better
than
your poems.
Anyway,
if that’s what
they
taught you,
then
you’d best forget
all you
learned
in
graduate school.”
“How can
I? The bill
comes
each month.”
“Well,”
said the sun,
having
the last word
as he
always will
“looks
like you’re the fool.”
~ ~ ~
Vincent Francone is a writer living in Chicago whose work has appeared in Spectrum, Rhino, New City, The Oklahoma Review and other journals. He won 1st prize in the 2009 Illinois Emerging Writers Competition and is polishing a book for publication. Read his blog at www.zombiedante.blogspot.com and look at his collection of smug writer poses at www.faceandhands.blogspot.com
Thanks to Vincent for his contribution to the tattooed Poets Project on Tattoosday!
This entry is ©2015 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoos are reprinted with the poet's permission.
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