Jim Carroll died on Friday at his desk at his place in Manhattan. He had a heart attack. Its very sad - there was word that he had finally finished the novel he had been working on for so long 'The Petting Zoo'. i hope that that is the case and it is published posthumously. i loved Jim carroll's poems and diaries - it wasnt an originality that made him special - they called him the american rimbaud - but it was the ferocious hard work that he put into his writing and his street-rat poetic that he sharpened and defined from an early age. his teen story is the great american coming of age story. well thats what i think.
read: 'living at the movies' or 'forced entries' or his most popular diary 'the basketball diaries'
listen: 'people who died'
There will always be a poem
I will climb on top of it and come
In and out of time,
Cocking my head to the side slightly,
As I finish shaking, melting then
Into its body, its soft skin
--Jim Carroll, "Poem"
from Void of Course (1998)
