Okay, there’s a lot to this one. Think back to April 8th’s episode, the loosely tied trio, this is one of those days. Last week, I was thinking about The Hold Steady, specifically because of their album Separation Sunday because it was Easter (I wrote about that one, too). Anyway, those guys rock, and they have a different album that name checks John Berryman a number of times, John Berryman is a rock and roller’s poet, and that got me thinking on poetry about rock and roll. This was on my mind for at least a week, I was trying to remember the name of a book my mentor at University of San Francisco, Bruce Synder (did an episode on Bruce, too) recommended knowing I was both a poetry guy (obviously) and rock head, too. Good news, readers, I finally remembered the book: Mystery Train by David Wojahn. Bad news, readers: I have long sold my copy of that book to a second-hand store and interlibrary loans only happen so fast.

Seemingly, none of Wojahn’s rock poems are online, but Poetry Foundation dot com has a number of other poems, including “Elegy for James Wright.” James Wright is a wonderful Ohio poet who I was quite fond of chasing a recommendation by a poetry mentor from Otterbein, Terry Hermsen. I’ll read him on the pod tomorrow, but for now, here’s Wojahn eleugizing Wright and two poems by Wright, “A Lazy Poem on Saturday Evening” and “Just Before a Thunder Shower” that capture this moment in the midwest nicely. As for the Monday morning commute, well, Saturday will be here soon enough.

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