Tom: Mainly whatever I read – and I read everything I can get my hands on, from Spiderman comics, mystery novels, science fiction, fantasy, Chaucer and Elizabethan literature, Gothic novels. And somehow, it all finds its way back out. A long time ago, it found its way out through imitation. I have pages and pages of really bad Bukowsky-imitation poems. Now it finds its way out in other more effective ways. A lot of what I get from the media, to some degree, is an inspiration, or at least, it gives me motivation to write. And the whole coffeehouse experience has also played a role in this inspiration.
Jessa: So tell us more about your coffeehouse experience.
Tom: Until moving to the greater Boston area, I never had any coffeehouse encounters, and had never really considered reading my work anywhere. Then when I started getting published in the small presses, I felt inspired to find a place to read. When my wife and I moved to Westboro, MA, I just happened upon the OLD VIENNA COFFEEHAUS. So the first time I just went, and checked out the open-mike on Thursday night. The following week, I read there, though it was a terrifying experience. But Tim Mason told me that he liked what I was doing, and explained that the terror goes away after a while. So I kept going back, and my inner experience got better.
From hanging out at the OLD VIENNA, Tim Mason, Kip London, and Jef Scoville all told me about the NAKED CITY COFFEEHOUSE. So in the Spring of '91, I went to check out their open-mike session. Incidentally, I believe my first time at NAKED CITY coincided with the first time for Richard Cambridge. Then I disappeared during the summer and fall of '91, because I felt overwhelmed from my teaching schedule, and didn't have time to write anything new – and I didn't want to keep reading the same stuff. But at this point, I've adjusted to those demands and am coming regularly again.
The entire coffeehouse experience has influenced me greatly, and has helped me sharpen my writing skills. Before the coffeehouse, I never realized how important it is to hear your poetry the way you think that others should hear it. There is no better way to find out what doesn't work than reading at a coffeehouse. When I read things now, I can hear almost immediately, "Clink! Oh, that doesn't work, I might as well get rid of it," or "I should keep working on it." You just can't do that by going over it in your head, or sitting alone reading it aloud. You have to be in the presence of others, then you can quickly feel what doesn’t belong or what doesn’t work.
Jessa: What people have made the most impact on you in our coffeehouse scene?
Tom: I really like both Richard Cambridge's and Lee Kidd's work a lot, because they do things that I don't know that I would even know how to start. Richard's poetry is very graceful and elegant; and Lee's is very powerful; he has an awareness of things that I haven't experienced yet.
I love listening to Raelinda Woad. I've never heard anything like her storytelling before. She's incredibly witty, with a dry, candid humor that often gets surreal. While it may seem more or less good-natured, at the same time, she is pointing out flaws in the system – which isn't always a good-natured thing to do, but it is a good thing to do. It has positive value for our society. Tim Mason is also good; he is one of the first poets I heard in this area. At times I see his poetry as a counterpart to Raelinda's stories. Also Peddlar MacMillan's stuff is good too.
There are also many poets in the Worcester-area who are doing some neat things. Bill MacMillan has some very provocative, in-your-face kind of material; it's almost like a poetry assault more than anything else.
Jessa: What are your projections for our local coffeehouse scene?
Tom: As far as NAKED CITY [the earlier incarnation of SQUAWK Coffeehouse] is concerned, I sense there is a coffeehouse awareness that is happening here. In every society, I think there needs to be a group of individuals who are able to point out that not everything is the way it's supposed to be – not everything is as good as some people would have us believe. I think this discrepancy creates an impetus for people to start questioning their own values and belief systems; it makes them question what they've always been taught to believe in. There has to be someone who says, "You don’t have to believe that – because that's not right, it's not true."
Now at the close of the 20th century, I think the coffeehouse scene is going to be a stronger, more centralized force. I see a lot of people getting fed up with the system – people from the middle class are beginning to figure out that when they buy something that costs $5.00, it probably cost $0.75 to make – even with a 40% mark-down, the suppliers are still not putting themselves in the hole. It's taken since about 1900 and the Industrial Revolution for people in America to figure this out, but now they have. And now they're pissed. They're tired of the ones who perpetrate this; the ones who keep getting away with big profits.
This is what "coffeehouse awareness" and the coffeehouse crowd has known for a while – it's something that we've been trying to tell people for a long time. But now it seems more people are ready and willing to listen and believe. So we're going to need places for people to go and check it out, and learn that they don't have to take the crap anymore. I think that's very important.
I think the coffeehouse scene is going to become a fairly political force in mainstream society. As mainstream people take their discontent more seriously and personally, it's going to have meaningful influence in the leaders we pick in the next four, eight, and twelve years, as we enter the 21st century. And I want to be part of it.