Tom Fallon
Now by Maine writer and poet Tom Fallon

Tom Fallon

Anti-poetry, poetry, plays, fiction, experimental literature
Born Massachusetts, family emigrated to Maine @ 6 years
Creative visual ability evident in first grade of Whitman School
Dropped out of Rhode Island School of Design & St. John’s College
Excited by experiments of van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso, Klee &c. in hs
First abstract play, hitting 60's Off-Off Broadway theater during AF stint
Growing up w/baseball & football on vacant lots, Mickey Mouse, Tarzan &c
Holsapple, Hunting, Melnicove, Sharkey, Porter, early MWPA support
Influenced by modern art, modern jazz, modern classical
John Coltrane, Monk, Braxton, Circle, Ives, Varese, Cage, Reich &c
Key literary forces: Ezra Pound & William Carlos Williams
Literary performance, group improvisations, TF firsts during Maine 70’s
Maine Times poetry editor, MWPA board, small town newspaper columnist
NOW, Works on Paper 1976–2006, Poetry and Anti-poetry, recent book
Only 20th century Maine paper mill short stories based on experience
“Pregnant Man 1,” Red Dust 2, NYC, “A Dying Animal” staged in Boston
Questions scribbled in pocket notebooks re life, society, confusion/anger
Rumford paper mill work, reading & writing on the job
Suicide failure, second nervous breakdown, Maine state mental hospital
Through A Stranger’s Eyes first poetry book
Unrelenting days of English grammar, making/drawing letters, by mother
Visual creative ability influences designing whole space of the paper page
Whoring, beat, drunk in Maine town, 19 yr old Catholic girl chances love
X’d out left hand margin w/first poem, mid-page, uneven margins l&r
“Yes, I am a creator, every day seeking word forms from my ignorance...”
Zig-zag words, phrases, lines around 3 x 5–36 x 48 inch size pages &c