Hear me recite poetry on The Word Count podcast

Richard Wood (Twitter handle @rbwood) is a fantastic writer who hosts/runs a podcast called The Word Count (which is free via iTunes).

The most recent episode is live, featuring a handful of amazing writers reading their own works, including me reading three poems (“At the Crick,” “A Bar in Wixom, Michigan, on a Tuesday Night,” and “Once More the Stars”).  It’s a  long episode, clocked in at just over an hour, but it’s definitely a good listen (and, again, it’s free), so follow the links below and enjoy.

Check out details of the podcast and its participants here, and find the direct link to iTunes here.

Note: “At the Crick” first appeared at Greatest Lakes Review, and “A Bar in Wixom, Michigan, on a Tuesday Night” first appeared at Like Birds Lit.

Poem: Ode to Bukowski

I want so much to be like Chuck
finding my salvation at the bottom of a bottle and
scoring leftover prescription pills from friends of friends, but
I fall short and can’t quite manage to recreate his gritty realism
and I wonder if it’s because I’ve
never had the struggles he did, the crippling
alcoholism, the bouts with depression
the whores at the ready their fingers painted brightly
the long walks and the mornings after, the
biting migraines chewing away at you slowly
the only salvation
the words creeping out of your pen
onto the motel stationary,
your thoughts
the only sanity you have left.