I was aware that Mudcat has its own Jim Carroll, an interesting and informative member at that, and since I didn't want anybody to think that anything bad had befallen him, I added "poet/punkrocker" to the thread title. I was sure that that would be enough to keep anyone from getting the wrong idea, even at the first impression. I'm sorry if anyone did.
   The Jim Carroll who died yesterday was a brilliant poet at an early age, an enfant terrible, self-destructive, a sort of modern day Rimbaud. A talented New York high school athlete he claims to have been the one who convinced a teenage Lew Alcindor(later Kareem Abdul-Jabar) to develop his trademark hook shot. He sadly never came to terms with his addictions and finally wore his body out at age 60, but not brfore leaving us some of the greatest urban poetry of the late 20th century. He also created some heavy-hitting rock-and-roll as well. "People Who Died" is truly memorable, poignant and incandescent at the same time.
   I wasn't surprised to find out he's become one of the "people who died, who died" , but I was saddened. I'm tempted to compare him to a meteor, too soon passed from our skies, but meteors leave nothing in their wake and Jim left us his genious, his beauty, his soul.
May he at long last, rest in peace.