April Poet of the Month Chris Vannoy
Biography:
Chris Vannoy is a contemporary poet based in San Diego, California. As a member of a new generation of beat poets, he has spent over three decades writing and performing original verse on San Diego’s open mic stages. Vannoy has toured extensively across the United States and Europe, earning recognition as the California State Beat Poet and San Diego Beat Poet Laureate (2017-2019, as well as US National Beat Poet Laureate (2018-2019).
His works include the award-winning collection “Twenty Poems Against Love and a Song for the Air,” which won the San Diego Book Award for best book of poetry. His first full length book of poetry is another notable work, “A Strange Summer,” placed first at the San Diego Book Awards in 2014 features poems like “I Got Beat in San Francisco” and “Last Call for Kerouac.” His latest book, “What is Beat?,” was published in 2019 by Local Gems Press. Chris Vannoy continues to captivate audiences with his evocative and heartfelt poetry, contributing significantly to the modern beat poetry movement.
Backstory:
I had just taken my first workshop, and my instructor had admonished me to GET ANGRY. I guess that set me on a course I would follow for the next 35 years (so far). The teacher of the class also ran a local reading at the Ruse Theater in San Diego. I attended all of these readings that I could and there was one person who was reading at the time that was a police sergeant on the homicide squad, and he was reading excerpts from his book on some of the cases he had worked on. As I started this poem, I could hear his voice as the words worked their way onto the paper. The poem came out in three sections, almost complete.
Bald Betty was modeled after my grandmother…One Toothed Sue was a lady that used to come to a reading downtown. It was what I saw downtown at that time and had wanted to document. I found the images in this poem. I consider it my first real BEAT poem!
Life’s Not Easy On The Streets
I see’em every day pushin’ overloaded shopping carts
that clink-clank over cracks in the sidewalk
city-stalkers, NOMADS OF THE 21st CENTURY!
here comes One Toothed Sue, she talks to herself
remembers when she was “Prom Queen”
see there, how she turns away from her reflection
in that plate glass window she’s wonderin’ who the old wrinkled
woman is…did ya hear her? NOT ME…Not Me…not me.
and there’s Mark the Shark flippin’ cards on the pavement ….
“…come on bro. jus’ watch these cards
slippin’ and a slidin’! I know that you’ll win this time!
two down and one up which one? which one? only one buck!”
…. Later man I’m showin’ this dude around town.
Bald Betty over there wraps remnants of old blankets
around her head…sings old church hymns too
when she can remember the words
cancer treatment took what little savin’s she had left
after the house was sold
And there’s Three Finger Joe tippin’ that bottle of ripple
skyward. squeezes his eyes shut against the sun
catchin’ breaths between swallows
he’s breathin’ lightly today trying to hide the pain
of two busted ribs ………………………”GOD DAMN PUNKS!
THEY WOULDN’T HAVE MESSED WITH ME TEN YEARS AGO.
I WOULD HAVE KICKED BOTH THEIR ASSES GOOD!”
…. see those two missing fingers on his right hand
that’s what ended his boxing career, broke his spirit
and spit him out on these streets of piss and booze
There’s Wanda waiting over by the shelter door
with her two dirty-faced kids. Tryin’ to hide her fear and
humiliation and the swellin’ on the side of her face swearin’,
silently, to herself, that this is goin’ be the last time he’s ever
gonna hit her……………for the second time this month
she won’t press charges, what can the cops do?
I see’em all the time, everyday, and I know most of them,
all the regulars anyway …….they’s jus’ ordinary people
jus’ trying to get by on what’s they got
scrapin’ like the rest of us…only most of them have to scrape
a little harder dig a little deeper into their soul
just to survive these days …..life’s not easy, here on the streets
Hell, it’s not easy any wheres now a days……always someone
waitin’ in a dark alley or around the corner where
the street lamps don’t shine……waitin’ just to
bash your head in with a lead pipe……….and for what?
these people ain’t got nothin’ man but the clothes on their
backs
Buddy says he can see their spirits go. He always howls, jus’ like
a old hound dog ooowwwwwoooo…I heard him howlin’
awhile ago……over that way, means he seen someone dead
I wonder who it is this time? You can be sure when Buddy howls
that some one’s done gone to meet his maker.
well, it’s almost time to get in line for the mission
it’s good food., once you get passed the preachin’
you wanta come? ….
well alright …. maybe I’ll see you tomorrow
introduce you to some more of the people
who live down here, on the streets,
… where only pennies shine in the hot sun.
© 2025 Chris Vannoy