t. kilgore splake

t. kilgore splake (born thomas hugh smith, december 8, 1936) is an american poet and photographer.

T. Kilgore Splake is a lifelong Michigander. He was born and raised in a family where paternal expectations were strong for the children to advance as far as possible into the corporate career wing of the nation’s budding Military Industrial Complex. Striving to be ever the good son, he attained his B.A. and M.A. collegiate degrees from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo , Michigan . He then felt his inner self start to tread water while he moved obligingly onward through a career as a high school and college professor. It was a career which included a 25-year stint at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek , Michigan , where he taught Political Science. It was also a career that featured two troubled marriages that failed and difficult battles with demon rum ethers.

Upon turning forty years old, he began dealing with the restlessness of knowing more was “out there” and more was waiting to be uncovered inside himself. At that point, Splake began embarking on occasional, distinctively planned cross-country and Canadian road trips. He thus began to realize that the general malaise and discontent with “Society’s Plan” instilled into him by his upbringing was much the same thing as written about (and written against) by the Beat Generation writers. The road led Splake to an epiphany, at the age of 44 and living out of a Ford Bronco. One morning over a hangover and a cup of coffee, he started writing. Ten years later the state of Michigan began discussing his potential early release from college teaching duties. Thomas Hugh Smith told the state of Michigan to send him a retirement check every month and T. Kilgore Splake was born,

After decades of dedication to his creative energies, Splake remains a legendary creative figure in the small press publishing world and an icon in the international underground poetry scene. He has written over 75 books of poetry and prose. He has composed four books of photography and over a dozen audio/video tapes, CDs, and DVDs. Additionally, his poetry and photography are eagerly sought after by other editors and publishers of anthologies, literary magazines, and art journals, where over 2,500 of his poems and photographs have appeared. He is also an often reviewed and interviewed artist in various blogs and websites from all around the Cyberspace World.

Splake was the found editor of CLIFFS Soundings, a trailblazing international blend of writing and art that was published quarterly for five years, until his personal creative genesis started shifting to emotionally grueling memoir projects and heart surgery forced him to realize that time was of the essence.

Splake’s work has earned him numerous Pushcard Prize nominations and drawn international attention to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, his home base for over twenty years Up in the Cliffs, at the top of the Copper Keweenaw Peninsula, Splake maintains a Poet’s Tree monument topped by a Tibetan Prayer Flag that draws international interest from visiting poets and artist hikers.

His work is archived at the University of New York/Buffalo , Ohio State University , Northern Michigan University , and Michigan Technological University . His books Sadness of Backwater Women and Last Train Out are part of the curriculum in poetry classes at Gogebic College in Ironwood, Michigan .

Thought Splake was blessed with several powerful romances upon embarking full-time into his writing life, age differences between he and the young women, along with other life circumstances, caused the disintegration of those love affairs. What is left to be told of those relationships can be drawn by the reader’s intuition upon witnessing Splake’s tattoos.

t. kilgore splake profile written by Robert Zoschke “lowdown” editor sister bay, Wisconsin

t. kilgore splake

25214 ash street

calumet, mi 49913

splake@chartermi.net

• 2016 last dance – transcendent-zero press

• 2016 graybeard memories – gage press

• 2015 splake – transcendent-zero press

• 2015 crossing brautigan creek – rusty truck press

• 2015 calumet air force ‘radar’ base – gage press

• 2015 tommy’s desk presa press

• 2015 waiting gage press

• 2015 last train out – gage press

• 2015 winter river flowing – presa press

• 2014 long white memories, gage press

• 2014 the room – shoe music press

• 2013 grand marais – gage press

• 2013 beyond the ghosts – presa press

• 2013 splake fishing in american – presa press

• 2012 only in my dreams – gage press

• 2012 beyond campfire ashes – gage press

• 2010 loretta’s song – gage press

• 2010 lost whispers – gage press

• 2009 the winter diary – gage press

• 2009 the winter diary notebook – gage press

• 2002 backwater graybeard twilight – thunder sandwich publishing

CHAPBOOKS

• 2013 beyond the ghosts – presa press

• 2013 autumn shadows – moon press

• 2012 gathering of poets – rusty truck press

• 2012 rosetta cafe – shoe music press

• 2012 coming home – presa press

• 2012 ghost dancer’s dreams – presa press

• 2011 creative life – gage press

• 2011 tres metrops – gage press

• 2010 holy prisoner – shoe music press

• 2010 facebook – rusty truck press

• 2010 union printer – mary-mark press

• 2010 the poet tree – kamini press

• 2010 backwater bard loft musings – moon press

• 2010 splakeus and lillies – moon press

• 2010 magnum – shoe music press

• 2009 deuce – miskwabic press

• 2009 the brautigan table – miskwabic press

• 2009 beyond the cliffs – miskwabic press

• 2007 samantha – miskwabic press

• 2007 connections: ann arbor-keweenaw – miskwabic press

• 2006 betsy – miskwabic press

• 2006 the dredge – miskwabic press

• 2006 a shadow passing – miskwabic press

• 2006 dream song dream – miskwabic press

• 2006 cold mountain passages – miskwabic press

• 2006 bum wine – miskwabic press

• 2004 next stop paradise – the hold

• 2004 rainbow diary – thunder sandwich publishing

• 2004 evergreen – thunder sandwich publishing

• 2002 lac la belle morning – thunder sandwich publishing

• 2002 tailings – thunder sandwich publishing

• 2002 slouching toward calvary – thunder sandwich publishing

• 2001 the murderous clown – angst productions

• 2001 rainbows rising – angst productions

• 2001 “cliffs” – angst productions

• 2001 cocaine – asterius press

• 2000 morning mourning – angst productions

• 2000 being becoming – angst productions

• 2000 light lightness – angst productions

• 2000 kerouac upper peninsula diary – angst productions

• 1999 trout dancing sonata – hodge podge press

• 1998 porcupine mountain papers – angst productions

• 1997 last train out – angst productions

• 1997 opening day breakfast musings – green bean press

• 1995 odyssey to civilization and back – angst productions

• 1995 memories – angst productions

• 1995 celebration of thea – angst productions

• 1995 twilight long white – angst productions

• 1993 boho beat theater – angst productions

• 1993 expatriate homeboy returns – angst productions

• 1993 sadness of backwater women – angst productions

• 1993 keweenaw love story – angst productions

• 1993 a loving enemy my muse – angst productions

• 1992 springtime for oona and brautigan – angst productions

• 1991 soft echoes behind the waterfall – angst productions

• 1990 a hole in reality – angst productions

• 1987 notes from the cave – angst productions

• 1985 ghost soundings – angst productions

• 1983 paris express – angst productions

• 1983 alaskan letters – angst productions

• 1983 beyond the fire

• 1981 october softly – angst productions

• 1981 mute whispers – angst productions

• 1980 dark musings – angst productions

• 1980 moon shadows – angst productions

• 1979 reststop – angst productions

• 1979 pictured rocks poetry – angst productions

PHOTOGRAPHIC CHAPBOOKS

• 2002 lightness of being – thunder sandwich publishing

• 2000 shadows visible – angst productions

• 1996 available light – angst productions

DVD-FILMS

• 2012 reading with splake – mspt vibrational relativity

• 2012 pictured rocks poetry – angst productions

• 2006 le metrops – dave engel productions

• 2006 a poet’s day – angst productions

• 2005 “cliffs” – angst productions

• 2004 splake # ii – angst productions

• 2003 splake # i – angst productions

• 2002 evergreen – dave engel productions

• 2001 full moon traveler – dave engel productions

SOFT-COVERED UPPER PENINSULA BOOKS

• 1989 soul whispers poetry – angst productions

• 1988 keweenaw: copper country – angst productions

• 1985 pictured rocks memories – angst productions

• 1984 superior land lights – angst productions

UPPER PENINSULA BROADSIDES

• 1990 superior peninsula themes and places

• 1990 pictured rocks

• 1990 keweenaw copper country

• 1990 superior land lights

• 1990 waterfalls of the upper peninsula

LITERARY ART JOURNAL EDITOR

• 2004-2008 editor of “cliffs soundings,”miskwabic press, calumet, michigan, published quarterly.

________________________

t. kilgore splake

“literary portrait”

by thomas h. smith

the summer of 1978 was a significant time in my life with several notable achievements. while camping in the pictured rocks lakeshore area in michigan’s upper peninsula, i caught a near record splake in sable lake outside the community of grand marais. my library that summer consisted of the complete works of kurt vonnegut published by the dell book company. also, during the all too brief respite away from teaching at kellogg community college in downstate battle creek, i began writing my first poetry.

following the labor day holiday, i returned to the college campus and began another semester of teaching political science to freshmen and sophomores. after accumulating a collection of poems, i decided it was time to test my writing in the small press environment. at first it seemed a frightening prospect to post my poetry out to small press magazine editors on literary spec. i thought how embarrassing it would be if my poems were considered a big sorry joke.

a faculgty colleague suggested, “tom, why don’t you select a nom de plume and submit your poems using that identification.”

my given name is thomas smith, and when i do poetry readings i refer to myself as margaret smith’s favorite son for a little bit of introductory humor. my adopted pseudonym “t. kilgore splake” came from parts of the summer of 1978. to all of the battle creek college faculty i was called “t.” in kurt vonnegut’s book breakfast of champions he had a leading character named kilgore t. trout. finally, a splake is a planter trout that doesn’t reproduce and grows rapidly. out of this combination of possibilities, voila, t. kilgore splake was created and the rest is literary history.

as my writing progressed and i became more accepted nationally, my frustrations increased over a lack of time available to push the creative envelope. the michigan state legislature came to my rescue and freed me from a job that i felt i was slowly dying in and had begun to hate. in 1989, the legislature passed a law facilitating early retirement for state employees. very quickly, kellogg community college and battle creek became past history, as i elected to run for the daylight of greater creative freedom.

i settled in munising, michigan, a small community on lake superior in the central upper peninsula, where i lived in a small old house on the west end. here, i read, mused, and did frequent contest with the elusive damn-dame lady muse.

in jest i often refer to my first five years of residence in munising as my “creative writing 101a” experience, and the second five years as the splake “creative writing 101b” course of study.

it was three or four years into my munising tenure when i finally felt i achieved what other writers identify as their “voice,” and was able to accept the identity of being a poet. my reward or from this achievement was the purchase of a black beret, a traditional symbol of “the artist” which i continue to wear proudly.

among my several literary mentors in the munising period, jack kerouac, richard brautigan, and ed abbey played significant roles in influencing my writing. during this reclusive stay and bardic exile, i produced the chapbook length titles: the kerouac upper peninsula diary, rainbow diary, and slouching toward calvary. these works were influenced by kerouac’s vision of cody, brautigan’s watermelon sugar, and ed abbey’s a

fool’s progress.

during a 1998 omphale showing of splake photographs, the art gallery curators urged me to move to calumet, an old copper mining town in the keweenaw peninsula, and become part of their artistic community. with an upper peninsula season in the “long white” an any day possibility, in a mad act, i sold my munising home and moved to calumet, settling in two days before the first snows began. for the past five years i have lived and done my creative work in the loft over the omphale art gallery in calumet.

there seems to be a common agreement among artists that a “sense of place” is critically important to working creatively. albert camus said it well, “a sense of place is not just something that people know and feel, it is something people do.” my artistic vision during the past five years in calumet has been more focused, spritzy, and abundant compared to my time living in munising.

two years ago i published the much dreamed of “big book,” titled backwater graybeard twilight. editor jim chandler of “thundersandwich press” in mckenzie, tennessee and i collaborated to produce 152 pages of the best of splake poetry and short writings. backwater graybeard twilight also contains 40 of my best black-and-white photographs.

this coming fall after the CLIFFS trees have lost their foliage, and the keweenaw natives are preparing for the arrival of the alberta clippers and saskatchewan screamers of winter storms, i will begin writing my magnum opus personal memoirs. i plan to store my car over the winter and strive to narrow my focus to the single-dimension reflections on the separate chapters in the splake life and times.

i tell my several friends and acquaintances, that i don’t know if calumet had been waiting for me, or i have been waiting all my life to discover calumet. quite simply i feel like i am home and plan to stay. the central attractions of calumet for me have been the solitude, artistic camaraderie, and the marvelous ruins.

when the downstate faculty i taught with learned that i was retiring to the upper peninsula, they would inquire “t., how will you stand those harsh and endless UP winters?” wintertime in the upper peninsula is wonderful for a creative artist, for during the season in the “long white” distractions are at a bare minimum.

after an early morning rising, and any new snow accumulation has been pushed from the front stoop to the curbside, i am free for the rest of the day to read, muse, write, and bardic plan and scheme. if i should wake with a case of pouty writer’s block, i hike to into the bathroom and whisper at the mirror, “this is what you wanted so badly, t, let’s get after it.”

in munising, i had two or three people that i considered close friends. munising was a cold community and not very hospitable to any newcomers. calumet has provided me with a variety of artists that i can talk to and use as sounding boards for new ideas and splake projects.

the history of calumet and the surrounding keweenaw peninsula has been the boom and bust economic periods associated with copper mining. copper mining began to decline as the ore deposits were played out and vanished, or shafts had been extended too deep to make mining possible.

across the Keweenaw peninsula are the remains of the cliffs, central, and delaware mines and other mining sites that were abandoned a long time ago. in 1968, after an unsuccessful union strike, the calumet-and-hecla mining company ceased its operations. this had a devastating economic impact on calumet and the surrounding areas. without jobs the population decreased sharply and mining buildings, private businesses, and homes were left unattended. calumet truly represented the proverbial village that time had passed by.

these deteriorating mining buildings, boarded up storefronts, and houses in disrepair are the stuff that dreams, ghosts, and poetry are made of. christopher woodward in his book, in ruins, summed it up well, “to a poet, decay, . . . represents the individual ego in the flow of time.”

his words speak large truths to this graybeard poet who is trying to figure things out, with time becoming an ever increasing and demanding adversary.