k

Kevin Eberhardt & Steven B. Smith

my name's smith - i'm the poet at the american coffee machine shop jim lang reading last month who read a t.s. eliot verse then recited Bye Buy from memory ...

i quite enjoyed you two slipping from german to english to croatian etc ... especially liked the sound of the german 'snow' poem ... snay snay snay

your admit2 website inspired me to try my first collaborative poem - i contacted a poet i've not met, asked him to exchange 3 line verses, him starting.  we emailed 23 verses each back n forth over 16 days.

here's the result.... you're welcome to use it if you desire, but if it doesn't fit your needs, that's okay too.  it doesn't seem to fit your other online collaborations. just wanted you to know you two caused two others to bring more collaborative words into the world.

i added it to his link and my own as well - in case that makes a difference.... his is an eye-popping red & blue verses against black at http://www.agentofchaos.com/ke/index.html#working

hope to stop by the coffee machine shop this coming thursday to see what jack mcguane sounds like - maybe see you there.

if you're in the neighborhood (i seldom am) i'm reading LAB RATS - the quantum collapse of Mother Dwarf Smith this friday 9.9 8:30 borders bookstore strongsville.

ciao ciao boogie go down wail gone

My name is Kevin Eberhardt and I am the collaborator with sbsmith on the poem Working Class Warfare Blues. He informed me that you would like a bio to go with our poem, so here goes (not really great at these things):
I am 51 yrs old. I've been writing poetry since I was in high school. I never went to college. After brief stints in various  menial jobs I went right to work at the Lorain Shipbuilding Company as a  rigger for a 5 year sentence. I continued writing poetry but had no real idea what I was doing.
Skip ahead about 20 years. Now, after having worked for the government in various civil servant capacities, I had thrown away most of my old poetry, poetry written previous to this time (except for some nostalgic pieces) and started over. I had never read much of other people's poetry because (erroneously) I didn't want to suffer another's influence. So, I started reading anything I could, by anybody. This had opened up a whole new world to me, helped break me out of the rut I was in, the rut of writing terrible poetry. My poetry may not be judged kindly by others, but I am much happier with it. I still try to write only under my own influence but I now have a better understanding of what makes a good poem and why.
I didn't start out writing poetry with the intention of anyone else ever
reading it. It was always more a bit of self-analysis mixed with dreams. I guess I still see it that way, but thanks to a few people like my wife, Ann, and Mr. Steven B. Smith, I am a bit more confident in sharing my 'writing'.

Kevin

Read: "Working Class Warfare Blues" from "Admit Two", No. 10, Mar. 1st, 2006.

find out more about S. B. Smith's collaboration with Mother Dwarf a.k.a. Florence E. Smith 

back