Poems for My Girlfriend

Most things put out by my publishing imprint are things you'll never see unless you go to either one my readings or a Stone Soup event. The image above is a cover to a recent chapbook that's even more scarce, with less than five copies in existence. It has quite the story to it.

Picture the world before Guitar Hero and Rock Band, even before karaoke. Once upon a time, for the not ready for MTV types, there was the art of the lip sync. Yes, it existed before Jimmy Fallon. Do a search of "Puttin on The Hits" on YouTube, and you'll see very interesting examples.That will put you in the proper context for this story.

This video will help too.



In the first half of the nineties, there were places set up around colleges and tourist attractions where you could grab some instruments (fake or otherwise), wear some cheap sunglasses and make your own music video to take home on a VCR tape. My sister did a few of these with her best friend up in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. While her friends fronted and sang, she sat behind a keyboard and did her best not to break out laughing. Without pioneers such as them, we would have no lip dub.

For one day in 1994, during a college fair, there was, for lack of a better word, a lip sync "stand" where students put on wigs and hats and lip synced to their favorite 90's/grunge tunes behind a blue backdrop for special effects. Many people participated and brought tapes back to their dorm room. A floor mate of mine had done one with the person who would become my girlfriend seventeen years later.

That last fact alone is worth far more than a haiku's length of verse

Pure sunshine.

Poems for Perry's Kid is a collection of poems I set out to write for my girlfriend  after we came across her copy of the tape. I got it converted over to a DVD as soon as I could. It was great to watch it again and watch her, a true progressive even then, take the lead singer role for "Been Caught Stealing'" and sharing that role. I can't catch enough images from the video. Now I can revisit this any time I want to (it's mine Mine all mine!).

The drummer alone is worth a hundred sonnets. But, y'know, priorities.

Th collection I wrote for her was written while listening to Jane's Addication's Ritual de lo habitual, which I had never heard in its entirety before. I plan to return to these memories. Maybe I'll share the poems in Perry's Kid sometime in the distant future, maybe not. For now it's a personal gift to my girlfriend, who shares the same birthday month as me. It also works as a belated anniversary present. Love to you, hon. Four years later and nothing is the end.