Jerry Garcia Takes a Cinematic Approach to Poetry

“Don’t run when you can walk,

don’t walk when you can stand,

don’t stand when you can sit.”

~Anonymous

Jerry Garcia, author, poet, photographer and filmmaker is an extremely versatile storyteller with a vibrant history in the poetry community. As a native of Los Angeles, he admits he is too old to have been named after the famed Greatful Dead guitar virtuoso, however music is a strong infusion in Garcia's vernacular.

View slideshow: Poet Jerry Garcia

As a poet unconstrained by strict formality or sonnet-cism, his poetry is intuitive and never shoved into a box, Garcia adds a certain voltage to his vocabulary... his poetry has static. Often when reading his work or listening to Garcia read his own, one can envision the imagery on an old film reel... always cinematic, sagacious and memorable. His poetry encompasses all the elements society loves about American film and Garcia isn't afraid to tread the dark waters, but does so always with a sense of higher wisdom.

Jerry has been a featured poet at venues throughout Los Angeles, including seen in various journals including the Chiron Review, The November 3rd Club, Palabra Magazine, The Night Goes On All Night: Noir inspired poems edited by Rick Lupert, Lily Literary Review & Poetic Diversity. He has published several chapbooks including Hitchhiking with the Guilty. He is a past director of the Valley Contemporary Poets and Beyond Baroque's Board of Trustees. Beyond Baroque, The World Stage, Skylight Book Store and the Los Angeles Central Library Aloud Series as part of the 2006 Newer Poets XI.

Jerry is currently reviving a screenplay written twenty-five years back to reflect the scribe he has since become, as well as breaking it down into a series of poems for future publication. For those that are familiar with Jerry Garcia’s craft, this is no surprise given the cinematic quality to his poetry and photography. His work is a visible feast and one that offers a familiarity and often a commonplace realism. Read the FULL INTERVIEW.

(Please click on poem titles to view art accompaniment with each poem.)

Window Strikes is confessional, and as with much of his poetry, Garcia's fearless approach to poetry always offers a slice of wit and a colorful perspective to the darker alleys of his poetic path.

Window Strikes

Like faked-out birds
we slammed into one another’s reflection
passed out on kitchen linoleum
drooling until morning sun
split our heads awake.

We paid penance of instant coffee
laced with bourbon
and pancake batter browned in beer.
We pretended to job hunt the classifieds
in the neighbor’s used newspaper,
disconnected phone calls
ended the breakfast charade.

Hair of dog quelling headaches
we showered with the passion of young lovers;
became the couple we were meant to be,
tumbling on stained sheets,
back arching upright against the window
laughing at the traffic below.

It only lasted the while
before keeping up with our Jones
became the mission,
to score again our only cause,
while slapping ourselves for reassurance

No neighbors would interfere
as the last of the dishes clattered
while blame-gaming one another
for our sorry condition
before collapsing into another night
of strained silence.

Jerry shares two more cinematic poems both of which have a unique sharp edge of their own...

Strong Persuader

After Robert Cray

Contented guilty winds

whistling branches undressed

afternoon parking lot frost

at the No Redemption Motel.

Ashen faces, dirty cars

traffic hounds salted pavement

acrylic scarf trying to stave chill

of stagnate hometown air.

She cell-phones that man

she calls husband.

“I’ll be home late, Robert

I have to work overtime.”

Foul play ensues in the

welcome arms of a strong persuader

supermarket daytime bachelor.

He makes her feel less old.

Flophouse lamp light silhouettes

A bending spine in reach of fallen brassiere

while her most recent paramour

snores in rhythm to the flickering Evening News.

In wet blue nightfall

her rusted sedan throttles

16 miles from the wrong direction

sex lingers like automobile air freshener.

No elegant word can articulate deceit

like a frozen drive

crossing urban train tracks

in evening’s drizzle of traffic.

Insulation is a gritty and sagacious character driven piece which holds nothing back. A clever play with language gives the poem a bite of dark humor describing a woman sliding from unwind to unravel. The satire of this poem leaves a taste of nostalgia and pop culture on the tongue, making one want to read the piece out loud.

Insulation

Oh baby, you were

so out of control,

falling out of your

dance dress

under a narcotic

evening moon

You thought

you still had it together.

You screeched red terror.

I thought your heart

would tear open right there.

So loudly you roared

“I don’t care”

and at that point I saw

the switch to your wits

shut down its current.

That’s right

you didn’t care.

You didn’t worry about

the confusion of uppers

or downers

You didn’t lose sleep over

thoughts of dehydration

impending starvation.

So quickly,

like a sponge out of water

your In Style body

became dried flesh.

Now you sprawl on cigarette butts

and dried chewing gum

stiletto heels

awkwardly side-steps

your skeletal frame,

you’ve doubled your pleasure

alright,

—right onto the streets.

Currently, Garcia continues to draft a collection of poetry inspired by and on the topic of music. Music, as it should be, is an undercurrent to poetry and Garcia takes a more tender approach in poems such as

Rainy Night House

after Joni Mitchell

Minor piano notes plink rain fall

on terracotta tiles,

suburban midnight’s blue raincoat

watches the rise and fall

of your body gently breathing

in left-over incandescence.

White cotton sheet

barely exposing milky cleavage,

nipples like rose petals on snow;

a sleeping grimace punctuates

the amber features of your reverie.

Simultaneous dreams

mirror noir cravings

of a two person choir.

Harmony becomes

restless with night sweats

of mutual distrust;

shallow assignation ending.

At dawn the afterglow fades

into thunderstorms

and door slams.

Practice pedaled piano

dampens yellow reflections

of the last sunrise kiss;

before morning’s flood undermines

the need to cling and repair.

Far away in desert vapors

A movie theme melody

plays against strident chords,

scoring this escape from epoch memories

of who we might have been.

In this facet of his craft, the language has a tender musicality and a ca(dance) which has both a intense and harmonic foundation. Using alliteration and ottomonapeia Garcia uses expressive word pairings to create a sensations of rain and instruments; a fitting tribute to Mitchell and a well crafted poem that hynotically teases the senses.

Jerry Garcia doesn't shy away from giving credit where credit is due he also pays tribute to the great writers throughout history in the following poem. A dream-like piece and fitting ode to the passion behind the muse.

Lexicon

My dream of words

At war in the cerebral forest

idioms explode into shrapnel,

words clash with branches,

small-legged animals dodge punctuation

and break ranks as the ground opens

to swallow the ashes of my wounded rhyme.

I stand naked at the window,

watch letters build

into well-dressed phrases

and attack like arrows.