All My CDs, pt. 101: Matinee Motel

Matinee Motel - Dan Smith and the Deep Cleveland Trio

I got this CD as part of a giveaway of chapbooks at a poetry reading three years ago, when I started becoming more active in the Cleveland poetry scene. It differs from every other CD on my shelf because it’s primarily a work of spoken word (a collection of poems written and read by local poet Dan Smith), and the music mainly creates a moody backdrop.

Many of the poems have a very local flavor. Dan Smith is not only a Cleveland poet by coincidence of geography, nor even by the name-dropping of specific streets and landmarks around town, but by the way he captures the city’s gritty, rough-edged spirit. Listening to him reading his poems, I thought about other Cleveland poets I know, and wondered if Cleveland has a voice that all its poets channel with their words.

Then I wrote a poem about it:

I try to write in the voice of Cleveland
a city of humble aspirations
a city that burns a river and names a beer after it
a city that places its pride in its ashiest deeds
and paints its noblest face with the colors of self-deprecation
I try to write in the voice of Cleveland
a voice that says if you can’t take the cold
get into the kitchen with kielbasa and pierogi
and leave the oven door open when you’re done
a voice that doesn’t bother with meter and rhyme
or even the rhythms of soul
unless there’s bass in the background
and a neon light overhead
I try to write in the voice of Cleveland
a city that aspires to humility
because any higher aim would take us away
from the truth that skitters down the streets
with the wind

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