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Marc Desmond
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outside the Pink Pony East, December 2000
| POEMS
BY MARC (by title)
Marc in Performance: MP3s A Good Idea (386k) A Viewer's Guide to Hell (3.8 mb) Thirty Days Without You (1.2 mb) Marc's rendition of The No-Net World, written by Larissa Shmailo (2.7 mb) |
Marc Desmond was a private person who wanted people to focus on his work, not his personal life. We continue to respect his wishes within this tribute site by focusing on the work: his poems, and poems written in his honor by fellow poets from the NYC circuit, who knew Marc well and loved him better. The one personal note we will make is this: he was too young to die, and it was too soon for us to lose him. Marc was in his early fifties, and passed away of a heart attack in the Strand Bookstore on Monday, February 5, 2001. His mighty voice –– unmistakable both biologically and poetically –– will not soon be forgotten by those who have heard him perform. Marc's work has appeared in both of the Rogue Scholar anthologies, as well as in Nomad's Choir, Stained Sheets, Rag, and Tribes Magazine. He was published online at roguescholars.com, poetz.com, CaféMo.com, slowcrack.com and lovesphere.com, and appeared on the Poet to Poet and Planet Caravan cable TV shows. He had not yet published in book form, though the last time we saw him at the Pink Pony West he was very enthusiastic about some upcoming possibilities. Marc’s career as a performing poet was a busy one. With The Rogue Scholars poetry troupe, he performed at Dixon Place, Gathering of the Tribes Gallery, The D.U.M.B.O. arts festival (1999), Barnes and Noble Summerfest at Union Square, ABC No Rio, and Pseudo.com. Marc also co-hosted (with the Rogues) at the Avenue B Social Club, now called Manitoba. He was a regular contributor at many open mikes and a featured poet at many popular venues: The Pink Pony, Bar 13, Baggot Inn, The Knitting Factory, Lalita Java, The Loft, Moroccan Star in Brooklyn, and the Saturn Reading Series at Revival Bar (the Saturn feature, on January 29th, turned out to be his last). Marc was scheduled to read at ABC No Rio on February 25th –– a performance which was converted into a tribute reading in his honor. In his own words on the subject, Marc Desmond had been “dragged around the block by life a few dozen times, and has come up stinking of poetry.” We miss his unique and gut-wrenching aroma already. This tribute site contains as many of Marc’s poems as we have been able to put together, in addition to tribute poems written about him by his friends. |
POEMS
FOR MARC Four Years Later:
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