Ron Whitehead 

BIOGRAFIE

Ron Whitehead, werd geboren op Thanksgivingday, 23 november 1950 te Owensboro, Kentucky, USA, een dag waarop de zwaarste storm uit de geschiedenis dit rustieke dorpje geselde. Whitehead is dichter, uitgever, radiomaker, organisator en poëzieactivist. Na een langdurig buitenlands verblijf, waarin hij voordroeg in o.a. IJsland, Portugal en Nederland is hij nu weer terug in Kentucky, waar hij een eigen radioshow heeft. Enkele van zijn publicaties: I will not bow down. Selected poems 1990-1995 en Beaver Dam Rocking Chair Marathon. Momenteel werkt hij aan The Declaration of Independence This Time: Selected Poems 1996-2000. Bezoek ook zijn eigen site! Of lees hier het gedicht dat hij over het Meer dan Woorden Festival 1996 schreef, waar hij met Didi de Paris, Frank Messina en De Dichters uit Epibreren optrad.
In 2001 was hij een van de deelnemers aan het Londense LIPS Festival.

Raadpleeg www.google.com voor meer over Ron Whitehead.

TAPPING MY OWN PHONE

I'm going straight bought myself a flat top
haircut so stiff I can carry a tray of martinis

waiting on people someone to open up her
purse and give me a tip cause I don't have

a clue anymore as to what's going on but
I do know that I'm one step ahead tapping

my own phone to hear myself talking with
people who used to be my friends listening

so I can correct myself before they do and
I've got a surveillance camera in my abandoned

car across the street watching myself replaying
the tape so I can see if I'm acting funny before

they catch me doing something I shouldn't
like yesterday I spotted myself walking too

fast and I heard myself talking too loud yes
I've got the deep fear paranoia anxiety despair

and suicide blues but I'm making sure I don't
do nothing else wrong cause I done screwed

up so many times I cornered myself into a
backstreet deadend alley of paranoia and every

time I hear an airplane or helicopter or car
door slam I know The Secret Service the FBI

and the IRS Swat Teams have finally arrived
cause I published a poem by the President of

The United States of America without his
fully conscious permission and I'm sure I

haven't paid enough taxes cause I've got no
income yet somehow I keep on doing things

like eating every once in a while and paying
a light bill or two but how do I do it they're

gonna ask what's the source of your income
and how come you don't come to see us

anymore so yes I've become a little jumpy
but I'm staying one step ahead tapping my

own phone videotaping my every move
watching myself day and night replaying

the tapes cause I got a bad bad bad case
of the deep fear paranoia anxiety despair

and suicide blues


© Ron Whitehead, 2000