I Hear That Train A Coming…
Day 6 of Tour
Jess and I slept in and got a slow start to day 6. I’m grateful the back end of our tour is full of one gas tank drives between poetry readings and events. My bones are aching.
We headed out through the Arkansas flat delta lands, and about an hour into our trip I mentioned to Jess that I was certain that Johnny Cash was born in Arkansas, but I wasn’t sure where. I shit you not, one mile later we see a brown highway sign that says “Johnny Cash Boyhood Home Next Exit.” The road goes like that sometimes, and when it does, I always claim it as a sign of right living. Of course we stopped.
We saw Sun Studios the day before, where Cash was first discovered and where he first recorded, and now we were on our way to see his childhood home.
It’s about 10 miles off the expressway, and just outside Dyess, AR. You drive down Johnny Cash Memorial Highway to get there, then about two more miles down a dirt road. You could stop in the village of Dyess, population 339, if you believe the road sign welcoming you to town, where they have a welcome center, and sign up for a tour of the place that’s maintained by Arkansas State University, but we didn’t have time for all that. This was an unplanned roadside adventure. My favorite kind. We drove straight to the house to say our prayers and pay our respects alone.
We passed the small river that inspired the song “Five Feet High and Rising.” How cool is that?
The house, a small, white clapboard-sided shack really, is protected by a six foot chain link fence with a padlock, but that didn’t stop us, or cost us any money to get some photos and to stand there and imagine life for young JR Cash, as the locals called him back in the day. The biopic movie “Walk the Line” starring Joaquin Phoenix did a good job recapturing the scenery that surrounded his upbringing.
We spent about a half hour looking in through the fence and just soaking in the energy and vibration of the land we were standing on. We broke into a duet of Folsom Prison, “I hear that train a coming…”and were halfway through the song when a large caravan of cars pulled in for the next tour. They looked at us curious as we drove away waving and kicking up a cloud of dust. The road goes on forever and the adventure never ends.
We drove through another hour of the flat Arkansas delta and finally crossed into Missouri and into the low rolling hills of the Ozark’s.
We got into St. Louis and to the venue early. We hung around the Vagabond Tour Bus, Furtherer, and with National Beat Poet Laureate Mark Lipman. After a while, a small gathering showed up and off we went.
Urb Arts is a beautiful community art space located in the historic Old North St. Louis neighborhood that sits in the shadow of the mighty Arch. They’ve been open as a co-op community space for over a decade, and the artwork both inside and outside in the surrounding area was spectacular.
MK Sadiq, the slam master of St. Louis was our host for the night. How cool is that? He kicked the night off with some powerful pieces, and later, after a long show, he and I got to chat a bit about slams and the slam masters and scenes we’d known and read with. I’m not a slam poet by any stretch of anyone’s imagination, except that that I get lumped in with them often when I read. I think it’s because both slam and Dan perform poetry loud and with passion.
The Vagabond Poetry Tour brought the same faces as the night before. Mark Lipman, Jersey poets Damian Rucci and Alexander Ragsdale, and New Hampshire poet Jeremiah Walton. Jess joined us and read three poems, too, and we were joined by feature Dorothy Payne, a painter and poet from St. Louis now living in San Francisco, She was back to read with us in her hometown, and there were a handful of open mic readers, including poets Heather Keyes and Dan Wright, that I’ve known from social media but just now met the first time. The reading started a little late, and it went til damn near 10pm. Fantastic night of electric poetry.
I grew up about 90 minutes or so from here. This isn’t my town, but St. Louis is a city I’m familiar with. I’ve been here many times. I grew up visiting the St. Louis Zoo and Six Flags here, and then went to a ton of Cardinals games and partied here too often as a teenager. If you’ve read my second book, Finding Jesus & Prayers To My Saints, there’s a chapter in it based on some of my personal experiences in East St. Louis, a place you don’t ever want to wind up in on purpose. All these years later, I love coming back here a completely different human than I was back in those days.
And we’re here one more day. We woke up and don’t have to drive anywhere today, and as much as I love the road, I’m glad for a tiny break and another day in a city I’ll love forever. It’s a day of rest today, and maybe a little exploring around us, and then a reading that I’m really excited for tonight.
Come see us all at Dunaway Books. It’s going to be a good one.
And like always, thank you for all your help to get where we are on the road. I wouldn’t be here doing what I love, chasing these adventures, and slinging my poems and books if it wasn’t for all of you. I’m so goddamned grateful for all of this. I love you all. Namaste.
Love,
Dan
