Void of Course: Poems 1994-1997

Void of Course
Published: October 1998
By: Jim Carroll
Publisher: Penguin Poets
Length: 113 pages\

Cover design: Gail Belenson
Cover photograph: Joshua Sheldon

Dedicated "to Laura," this book contains 75 new poems, most of which are titled "Poem."

Trivia:

• "Void of course" is a term from astrology referring to a time when the moon is in between zodiac signs. Projects begun with the moon "void of course" will either remain unfinished or fail to produce the desired results.
• Carroll was born under a void of course moon.
• This is the first book Carroll wrote using a computer.
• In the cover photograph, Carroll is sitting on the dock where the survivors of the Titanic landed.
• Laura, to whom the book is dedicated, designed the River Jordan broadside.

Contents

• 8 Fragments for Kurt Cobain
• Facts
• The Bakery
• The Child Within
• Train Surfing
• Goethe's Early Garden
• Zeno's Law of High-Heel Shoes
• Jukebox
• Sick Bird
• Spy
• Bad Intentions
• Insomnia
• Radiation
• While She's Gone
• Lines
• My Father's Last Words
• Translating
• What Burroughs Told Me
• For Virginia
• Easter Sunday
• Flash Flood
• Specific Instances
• Ecology
• Crown of Thorns
• Locked Wing
• The Big Ambulance
• The Ocean Below
• Note
• A Plea
• Dance Floor
• Note
• Long Distance
• Native Moon
• The Black Rose
• Valentine
• Franz Kline's Old Studio
• Grains of Sand
• 1957 (Hurricane)
• Film
• Message Left on a Phone Machine