TRIBUTE TO JACK McCARTHY #2--END OF THE ROAD

Victor Infante explains how the artistic selection process can sometimes be arbitrary and subjective in a good way.

From Victor Infante's eulogy blog entry for the late Jack McCarthy, a poet whose undeniable talent and grace Victor and I can both agree on.  The selected passage is interesting for its insight into how unconventional poets can sometimes be blessed with academia approval.  NEC refers to New England College, where Jack sometimes taught.

It was after his first reading at NEC -- to a packed house, I might add -- that I had one of my favorite conversations about Jack and his work, with poet and NEC professor Carol Frost. Carol is always an outspoken sort, and when we encountered him in the hall afterward, she was clearly wrestling with Jack's poetry.

I confided that Jack does a lot of things in his writing that normally drive me crazy, but when he does them, they all work. That's what makes him such an amazing artist. This answer seemed to satisfy Carol, but it also crystallized a lot for me, too. A lot of people treat poetry like it's a math problem, an equation to be solved. Jack put the lie to that in poem after poem. The "rules," such as they are, are there to help the writer coax nuance, meaning and emotion out of the poem. They're not an end unto themselves. And Jack could use any of the tools in the poet's toolbox with skill and precision -- his smaller lyrics, the ones that rarely made it to slams, are gorgeous -- but he always knew he didn't have to use any artifice if he didn't need to. Jack could just craft a story, and it would inevitably be a poem, would always be something a bit more than a jumble of sentences and sentiment. Because Jack was a real artist, and any arbitrary rules only applied when he found them convenient.

RIP Jack McCarthy, storytelling poet extraordinaire.

I was blessed with seeing and hearing two fine storytelling poets in my lifetime--the late Jack Shafer and the just-departed-today Jack McCarthy.

Jack was a legend in the slam poetry community, or to be more accurate, to anyone (poet and nonpoet alike) who experienced him onstage-and-off.

He was kind and gracious to me in late 2006 when I came to Seattle (he and his wife Carol lived in Washington in recent years) to do a couple of featured readings.  I was also glad to go with him to one of his features in the area, plus a Seattle Slam reading.

My all-time favorite Jack McCarthy poem is "The Walk of Life"; here's the link: http://www.standupoet.net/Poems/Walk_of_Life.htm

Here's video of Jack's poem "An Evening of Television":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50n5HHnakAE

Jack McCarthy performs "Careful What You Ask For"

One of the legends of slam/performance poetry; happy to have encountered him and his wife Carol at certain times in the past when he came to SoCal.  Also remember seeing him in Seattle in 2006.

Another random comments entry.

1. Victor "The Rooster From Wooster" Infante is taking votes on his blog to determine a temporary definitive slate of great American poets: http://ocvictor.livejournal.com/855417.html Judging from the list of names I've read, people are submitting poets primarily on the basis of "it's goooooood for yooooouuuuuu" gravitas. At least Jack McCarthy and Brendan Constantine (poets who don't believe quality and a sense of humor are a twain that should never meet) are part of the list. And here's the final list: http://ocvictor.livejournal.com/856408.html
2. Here's a link to the ROLLING STONE article about Stanley McChrystal blowing off, being a tough guy who thinks he's George S. Patton and essentially giving the middle finger to his civilian Commander in Chief: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/119236 A few minutes ago, I logged on and was only able to read the first page; I don't know if that's on purpose or due to the number of hits it's getting today. [There was a line that Robert Montgomery said to John Wayne in John Ford's THEY WERE EXPENDABLE: "Rusty, who do you think you're working for? Yourself?" ]
3. RIP Lee Sloca--SoCal poet who recently passed away. Sloca was an active presence at Venice CA's Beyond Baroque; guessing that a tribute will eventually appear on Beyond Baroque's Facebook page (can't quite call it a "wall").