Friday, April 11, 2014

The Tattooed Poets Project: Chris McCreary

Our next tattooed poet is Chris McCreary:


Chris explained:
"This design, an embellished version of the City Lights Books logo, was my first tattoo. At the time, I felt it important to make a permanent vow to poetry on my skin itself, and no design better represented a commitment to challenging, innovative poetry than the City Lights logo. The artist was a jerk, the piece didn't heal that well, and it's certainly faded over time, too. And while I've gone on to get other, more technically impressive tattoos over the years, this one remains my favorite. The tattoo, like my poems themselves, might be cracked and imperfect, but it persists nevertheless, just like the poems themselves."
Chris also sent us this poem:

The Harrowing

When I was a child
I talked like I was taught
to say that signifiers
form a complex

web. Then I became
a man & placed a postage
stamp of a famous Modernist
on my Verizon bill. So

Jacques Derrida where
is the solace for I
am balding &
hemorrhoidal. See I saw

the oblivion & when I stopped
to drink it in, I missed dibs
on the astrolabe
& so was left to throw

rocks at wind chimes, torch
the observatory, bury it all elbow down
& salt the ground as after-
thought. Jacques

Lacan, why do I bother. I was soiled
before I even began & still could
care less how we harrow
unless it meant to thresh

as in limen, this boring
earth turned vortex
through which I might finally
try to tesser.

~ ~ ~

Chris McCreary is author of three books of poems. His fourth collection, [ neüro / måntic ], should be forthcoming in early 2015. Along with Jenn McCreary, he co-edits ixnay press (www.ixnaypress.com).

Thanks to Chris for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is ©2014 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

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