I mostly remember Shel from his having written "A Boy Named Sue" that Johhny Cash had a hit with. But he wrote a ton of silly songs, poetry, and children's books, along with some very tawdry drug culture poems too like this one. There's a lot of dirty words in it, but boy is it funny. Shel's the only I guy I know who could give you a poem full of dirty words about a hippy cat looking for the perfect drug and still manage to give you a nice moral at the end. I also find him an enigma in that he was friends with Hugh Hefner and yet wrote nice clean children's books too. He was one strange hippy dude.
This poem is read by Shel's old friend Larry Moyer at the Sausalito Woman's Club.
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When my daughter was young the first author that she gravitated to was Silverstein. She loved his poetry. I give him credit for her love of reading to this day. We all have to latch on to some writer when we're young, someone that can spark the fire and fan the embers of learning through reading. Mine was Mark Twain.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr. Silverstein - I owe you one.