Chris Stroffolino across four issues
Chris Stroffolino is an American poet, critic, performer, and musician whose work has moved between literary experiment and popular music for decades. His books include Speculative Primitive, Drinking From What I Once Wore, “Slumming It” in White Culture, In The Here There, and Medi(t)ations. He also played on Silver Jews’ American Water and has continued to write, perform, collaborate, and publish across poetry and music.
Four historical issues record his work. Issue 8 lists “Emu Love Volume,” Issue 10 lists “Red Tape Sale,” Issue 19 preserves “Blue Flute” in full, and Issue 24 preserves “In Memory Of My Rock Band” in full.
Blue Flute
You see
this guy why
do birds what
the world
this guy’s in
love needs
now suddenly
appear with you
is love sweet
love it’s everytime
you’re near
the only thing
if you see me
walking just like
me yes I’m
in love down
the street and I
start to cry
What do you get
when it’s the only
thing they long
to be you fall
in love you
walk by each time
we meet stars
fall out of a girl
with a pin
one less bell
to burst your bubble
who looks at you
the way I do it’s not
the way you kiss
when you smile
there’s just too little of
I can tell that touched
my heart the angels
got together one less egg
To walk on by we don’t
need another mountain we
know each other
very well it’s not
the way you look
that’s what you get
for all your foolish
pride golden starshine
trouble my hands are
shaking don’t let another
mountain this morning
I wake up wishin’
and hopin’ raindrops
keep before falling I
put on my makeup head
and Don’t make me
just like a guy I’ll never
fall over in your eyes
whose feet are too of blue
big now that I’ve
for that is his bed
that is why I say
a little nothing
seems to fit that tears
me apart many many
night, all the girls in town…
In Memory Of My Rock Band
Classic rock is unfashionable! So at the next rehearsal
You have to break out into a jam, even though your guitarist
Has moved to Boston, though he hasn’t exactly quit the band.
Perhaps you should be “groping for a new sound” while waiting
To see if any labels will bite on your classic last. You can’t rest
On laurels in the disktrays and walkmans of many of your friends
In low places. You don’t want to brag or think of your friends
As flatterers or misguided, nor of all the parties as but rehearsal
Rooms for the “big chance” on which you quixotically rest
Your hopes to bypass the local scene confines like your guitarist
Did by giving up his “unrealistic” desires he got sick of waiting
To see fulfilled in opting for a family instead of a band
But the girl he moved to be with is also in a band.
Can it last if he chose her over his bands and friends
And in the process made himself vulnerable, by waiting
While she’s out schmoozing with bands or at her own rehearsals
While he spends night alone trying to forget he’s a guitarist?
Well, who are you to say he’s made the wrong choice? Let it rest
Or “Let It Be” as Paul said in his jealousy toward Yoko. The rest
Of them sided with John, and even played with The Plastic Ono Band,
But you’re afraid you’ll sound like Wings, and, damn, you miss your guitarist!
He was “someone to perform with” as well as one of your best friends.
Without him you feel empty as the post-Tim Replacements at rehearsals
And performances. The drummer and bassist are getting tired of waiting
For you to book another gig, and you’re sick of waiting
To see if you can quit your day jobs. But you can’t rest
So you bring a new batch of songs to teach them at rehearsals
And they like them, but you feel less a member of a band
Than a “singer songwriter” playing songs for friends
Who happen to be a rhythm section, and damn you need a guitarist
(or perhaps a keyboardist, cellist, second vocalist, or steel guitarist)
To make up for your inability to play more than chords while waiting
For the instrumental bridge in which to solo, or some new friends
Who happen to run a cheap analog recording studio to help the rest
Of the musicians realize you can excel through overdubs as a studio band
And thus get on the radio for which your live gigs have been but a rehearsal…
Death or glory! Airwaves or bust! Well, you can’t speak for the rest of the band,
Rehearsals are not waiting rooms, but an excuse to hang out with friends
And shop for a new drinking buddy who just happens to be a mean guitarist.
Other recorded works
Issue 8 records “Emu Love Volume,” and Issue 10 records “Red Tape Sale.” Their surviving pages preserve the titles and authorship while the poem texts themselves are absent.
Poetry, criticism, and music
The Poetry Foundation documents Stroffolino’s poetry and music, including his work with Silver Jews. The Brooklyn Rail preserves his later sonnet work. A current literary biography records In The Here There (2024), Medi(t)ations (2025), and the 2026 collaboration Dreaming to a Click with Steve Carll.