I think of that line every time I read a Debbie Kirk poem.

There is no question that Debbie has many personal scars, (one can see this by reading her poems), and her answer to these painful, sometimes deadly scars is through the written word — her “feel” is through her stanzas that portray, sometimes in a sarcastic, amusing way, her journey to the “it” of the world. Like Kerouac explained many years ago, everyone has their own interpretation of it - but one thing is clear when reading Kirk, she is going to get there on her terms and no one is going to tell her any different.

The first stanza of the first poem, ‘The Last Song’ begins the reader on Kirk’s tortured yet sarcastic tour:

Maybe happiness is a warm gun
if I had one,
it would surely be hot
But we’ve got to start from scratch.

One of Debbie’s strengths as a poet is being able to incorporate lyrics (‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’) and fictional characters (Fonzie, Mr. Black from ‘Reservoir Dogs’) into the message of the poem. The gun is warm, she was told not to stand too close to the fire, the gun would be hot…all heat references which lead to the last ironic line, Got a light? By the end of the poem the reader must wonder if the writer has killed herself or punched someone in the mouth.

’If I had a dick, I’d tell Van Gogh to suck it,’ is a poem that writers from Boston to Houston can identify with. It tells of art being found by observation and interpretation in the real world, not in museums or standard textbooks:

art is not on the walls
art is the walls
walls
with their simple imperfections
stains
and stories

’Marked’ is filled with beautiful imagery and an underlying sadness that many experience but few will come to grips with. The first stanza: Bruises were strangled out of the laughing moon landing on my neck, like a halo that has lost its post”, almost sounds like a nihilist who’s wrestling with the idea of trying to find goodness somewhere. The last line “The world stopped breathing”, to me, represents the search for that golden ring that somehow, always seems out of reach for those who see the world as it is.

For all the Debbie Kirk fans out there, whether you’re a saint or a sinner…this is a must read. If you have never read her before, I suggest you lock yourself in, close the shades, and see if you can still take it truthful and raw.

Dan Provost, once…being disillusioned with life (why is not important), and being an ex collegiate Offensive Lineman, began to frequent the many dive bars that were both in Woonsocket and Providence Rhode Island. His size helped him. He was either thought of as a cop or some big galoot who was unhappy with everything (which he was) so he was pretty much left alone by the patrons of these establishments - (many of them you would not bring home to your mother or your parole officer). Dan sat and observed them—the hookers, the guys who were struggling to make ends meet, the criminals, and the ones who were losing the battle with the bottle. He was lucky; he could leave the “environment” and go home to his apartment—knowing he had a job to go to. The ones who he saw, talked to and hung around with never knew when their next pay-check or meal was coming from. So he guesses Bukowski lived it, he just saw it from up-close with his feet still being afar. Today, Dan works at Assumption College in Worcester Massachusetts as the Assistant Director of Graduate Services. He is also the Head Football Coach at Nipmuc High School in Upton Massachusetts. He is happily married to Bonnie and his family consists of her two great kids Deasy and Alex. And sometimes he still goes to dive bars and remembers. For a selection of Dan’s writing on the Showcase section of this site, click here

© 2005 Laura Hird All rights reserved.