Greetings from Nampa

I corresponded for a few years with writer and singer/songwriter Ben Baxter when he was a young dude.

Actually, he was more than a bit of a child prodigy, although who likes being called that really?

He edited a poetry magazine and recorded some amazing music which I still have and still enjoy (on audiocassette!)

Here he has edited the official, sanitized Nampa postcard.

He is talking about poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge on the other side of this postcard and he needed more space, so he affixed a piece of paper with some tape and remarkably it stayed attached to the postcard and intact for the entire voyage from Idaho to Pennsylvania.

It's still there, just folded behind so you can't see it.

I lost touch with Ben but I did Google him a little while back and saw he has a band--Charlie Baudelaire & the 666-Shooters--and had toured Europe.

I was happy to see he was alive and creating great art, as I always half-feared he wasn't going to make it out of his teens.

He would send me correspondence from numerous cities as he took off and hung out with poets like Jack Hirschman. In fact, I think he moved in with Jack Hirschman for a bit.

Maybe I'm remembering that correctly. Maybe not.

Funny, I just read Jack Hirschman's name about two days ago--because Clayton Eshleman mentions him when listing past Artaud translators.

And then I remember him being set up in Portland (Oregon) for a while.

I could see this kid was born with "semelles de vent" even then.

Funny to call him a kid.

This card is dated in Ben's hand 6/11/93.

How old would Ben be now?

Oh my god, probably in his thirties.

Time flies when...well time flies when you're doing anything. Don't be stupid.