As I finished my painting Poetry Pants, which was based on a poem I had written, I realized that this peice touched me more than I had anticipated. So that prompted me to go back and spend some time with the poem and meditate on the question which was posed to me by a viewer - Was Poetry Pants a self portrait? After I immediately jumped to the response that really all my art in some way or another is a self-portrait...I took pause. I paused to contemplate a deeper meaning...and of all my work, I have to say that yes, Poetry Pants is definitely a self-portrait. A snapshot of myself existing in a dark place, but recognizing that I can emerge - if only momentarily - into the light, to only go back to the dark place. Which means that Poetry Pants exists in the light, but was created from the dark.
Here is the poem:

There are ants in my corn meal
Ashes in my coffee
Here I am
Broken in two
Invisible today
Lonely
Dark and hollow

Smoke it anyway
We’re all going to die
Smoke your dreams
Live your nightmares

Eating Melba toast
With green butter chips
In a blue café
Crying green
Through red eyes

Dead birds
Hanging themselves
Near the clothesline
My empty thoughts
Are rockers
On a sunny porch

I’m NOT naïve
You can cut your hair
And grow your past
There are such things as
Slow cigars and fast women

Dead grass still grows
It grows and grows
It won’t stop growing
Growing grass
Hiding jagged rocks
Broken ankles

Drinking and driving only
Gets you there on time
Pour me a drink
Liquefy my tension