A new chap book by Tom Waits, called “Seeds on Hard Ground”, is being released this month to help raise money for homeless services and a food bank in the northern California county where Waits and his family live. All of the book’s proceeds are being donated to the Redwood Empire Food Bank, as well as Sonoma County’s Homeless Referral Services and Family Support Center.
The writing in “Seeds on Hard Ground” was inspired by Michael O’Brien’s photographic portraits of homeless people. The images that Waits evokes are visceral, poetic and resonant. This is a person who clearly remembers what it felt like to be poor and downtrodden, and Waits is able to concisely convey that pain with just a handful of well chosen words.
Here is a brief excerpt from the unreleased book:
The cars thunder past
As I stick out my thumb
I am just waiting for
My good luck to come
I am homeless
But I am moving
I am homeless
But I am moving
Maybe I’ll take the hound down
Maybe I’ll take the hound
Where the grass is green
And the barn is red
Where the wind makes
The trees look like hula girls
Maybe I’ll take the hound down
Maybe I’ll take the hound
My dog stayed with me
Even on the streets of Manhattan
See, Fido it means faithful
in Latin
I am the king of something
Yes indeed
I’m the king of the road
I’m the king of the weeds
King of the alley
King of the dirt
King of the doorway
King of the sidewalk
King of the hurt
I’m the bursting bubble
My crown is my hat
The limited first edition sold out immediately last week, before it has even been released. A second limited edition of the publication will be released by Anti Records on February 28th.
