Oh you're a hard one, but I know that you've got your reasons

American IV: The man comes around / Johnny Cash







I know Johnny Cash is not what you were expecting. Me either. This album has some great covers, though: Simon and Garfunkel, Beatles, Depeche Mode. Better than the originals in some cases. (I know this is considered sacrilegious, but I don’t like the Beatles. John Lennon, sure. The lyrics and music even, sure. The Beatles, McCarthy…no.)



But I do think Mr. Cash is a master and I just like him, though I’ll be damned if know why. I mean, he spent a lot of time not really being a nice guy. I guess one of the things I like about Mr. Cash is that despite his outlaw image, drug addiction and Folsom Prison Blues, he never actually served a prison sentence. Yet, he definitely understood it. I think he understood hope within hopelessness. Having visited prisons (note the visitor part), there is a particular … feel to a place of incarceration. I can feel that with some of Cash’s songs.

Regardless of the walls, the barb wire, etc., as not all have these things … the air is heavy. The weight of anger, frustration, restlessness, regret is tangible. They are places of contradiction. There is a lonesome silence in never ending noise, like white noise is quiet. It is a civilization of barbarianism. It’s the nicest people you’ve ever met, who would kill you in heart beat.

I have strong opinions about all such matters, of course.  I’ve never met any one who’s visited some kind of “correctional facility” or worked with anything in “the system” who didn’t. What I do know, regardless of one’s opinion, people don’t forget it. 

Cash is actually one that I don't want to write to.  Too dark, even for me.  Though at one point in the far past, I took to writing poetry about serial killers /victims.  (Now there's intrigue for you - I'm not explaining more about that here, but I will reprint one.)


Lost Soul


Four days.
No word, no clue.
Then found,
like a soda can
on the side of the highway.

I called your house
today, before remembering.
You told me you
weren't in, but
I left a message
anyway.