Heavy Slumming

An indigent poet is forced out of his rent-controlled, basement tenaments in San Francisco and is driven to the far East Bay. However, he still occupies both the urban and suburban worlds, taking trains back and forth between San Francisco and Contra Costa. Typically mood-disordered, the poet experiences states of inappropriate elation and castastrophizing depression (all of which proves to be fertile stimulus for his writing).

The poetry in this short tract is of the plain-language / confessional-rant style (typical of the 90s) and so it is very user-friendly to people not trained in poetry interpretation. This work first appeared as a staple-bound pamphlet at Bay Area open-mics, but eventually it went out of print. It is now again in print, but only in hardback form.