HRCFF: James Tate
Harry Ransom Center Friday Finds: James Tate
From a folder titled “Rejected Poems/Drafts 1979-1984” and included under the manuscript titled The Planet of Rough Edges
[1] Handwritten across the top of the page: “Fake Songs”
“Sometimes I think I’m in love with my radio.
a Sony transistor I bought not long ago.
With the money I won in the rodeo.
They asked me to (w)rid(t)e again but I said no.”
(“Write” was typed first, then Xed over to make “ride.” Another fake song was called “Fumblin’ Round.”)
[2] Several lists of “POEMS TO COMPLETE”:
POEMS TO COMPLETE:
Dust Babies
The Constant Threat of Meteors
Ashes Can’t Boogie
****
Mall of the Living Broke
Home Box Office
Built on Air
Teacher, My Teacher
Sweethaven
Tired of Pumping Your Own Gas?
(Across the top, he scrawled “Straddle my Wovries”)
[3] Pages with one- or two-line ideas typed on them:
“IDEA FOR STORY:
ordinary school teacher falls in love with worl [sic] famous woman reporter. her death, how it affects him.”
“Didymus the Blind put three dollars on Total Departure”
“He knows as much as a pig knows about Sunday
special visigoth handshakes”
(This one has “Hello” and “Naomi” written in bubble letters all over it.)
“I guess ponds and streams are kind of singles bars for frogs come night.”
