Unlikely Stories Presents

TONY GALLUCCI dances the song eternal

"I tell the truth, 'cept when I lie."
--Dwight Yoakum
"If I lie and say you took me for a friend,
patched together in my thin bones,
will you help me be cunning and noisy as the wind?"
--James Welch
"Sometimes even the Village Idiot has something to say."
--My father
(actually what he said was, "Sometimes even you have something to say." and he called me the Village Idiot.)

To the Unlikely Stories home pageI could not possibly make a joke about thisIf life wasn't so vulgar, we might find the poems of Tony Gallucci shocking. But life is a nasty business, and the harsh, frank words of Tony's poems seem to fit contemporary reality perfectly. Whether discussing sex or suicide, they carry a kindness and sensitivity that melds perfectly with their rough facades, pulling together the emotional and carnal into a comfortably real package.

Tony says: "Notes for you on a below-freezing texas night, saturn brighter than the moon:

"No dog. No cat. What I got's a pet buffalo. He's too big to crawl on my lap anymore. Still, he tries. 1200 pounds of try. I no longer let him sleep on the rug by the door. He's now an "outside" buffalo.

"I have no litany of drugs and extracurriculars, but i still write.

"Hum of High Wires probably says what it needs to say on its own. But i ought to say something about truth, since i tell my students writing is about truth. I think truth is what you want it to be. Sometimes you have to lie to tell the truth -- maybe the truth is you're a liar, i say. Truth is larger than words, or lives. Melissa is true too. The intersection of what's happening to you and what's happening to her/him may be love. Maybe not. Suicide: truth about truth. That's really all i have to say about those pieces - i hope they carry themselves.

"Other things? William Goyen, Susan Power and James Welch are my favorite writers; Naomi Shihab Nye, Joy Harjo, Carolyn Forche my favorite poets (but can't get enough of Young-Hae Chang; William Raspberry, Leonard Pitts and Kris Clack my favorite columnists; Thom the World Poet, Genevieve Van Cleve, and Tammy Gomez my favorite performance poets. Sorry, no favorite politicians - that's where truth fails us all.

"I usually point out that my family was a monstrous amalgam of culture. My dad died trying to make us the All-America family, but there was no stifling a household that used three languages, angered bled Italian/Scottish/Kainai blood, and smelled of our French Canadian, Mexican, Long Island, Texan upbringings (upbroughts?). Generally that's excuse for why i write like i do. Someone else may have to translate me through those filters.

"I guess i ought to say that i'm editor of The Black Widow & The Brown Recluse, part of the WordsWork network, an e-zine for high school writers; founder/mentor of the student writer's group "Locker Room Writers & Thinkers Workshop"; and associate editor of the "Texas Civil Rights Review". Was musical partners with Lyle Lovett. Finishing a spoken word/native music CD "Chicken Soup for Black Widows". Competed in the National Slam Championships. Done the journal, mag, chap, anthology, broadside, coffeehouse, conference, workshop, academia, theatre, movie, TV things. Did i mention i have a buffalo? Anyone need a nice buffalo?" Check out Tony's web site at http://fly.to/SevenBullsBoy, or write to him at sevenbullsboy@hotmail.com.

Tony's works here at Unlikely Stories are:

2003:
Melissa in the Year of Nothing Else to Do
Sometimes Suicide Is Not Enough
The Hum of High Wires