A poet serving up doses of compassion
Live show from Austin Davis, a homeless advocate and brutally vivid writer
HARK!
I hear…an echo…
In the year since this HARK Valley newsletter launched, some of the stories have been–admittedly–trivial: Reviews of movies and Netflix offerings, previews of Friday the 13th and Halloween shows and… Buds-a-palooza (what could be more “up in smoke”?).
Even the profiles of musicians, artists, comedians, writers, etc. might have been nice new talent to put on the radar…but, it could be argued, entertainers hardly change the world–and most have no intention of doing so.
Then, there’s Austin Davis…
Now this is an artist who is reshaping the social landscape, albeit in tiny, incremental spoonfuls of compassion.
By day, he helps the homeless.
By night, he breaks out a notebook and recalls the faces, the places, the pain–in brutally vivid poetry.
To quote from the HARK Valley profile of Davis, last August:
A rising star of HARK Valley (aka “The Desert”), young Davis has published two books of poetry: “The World Isn’t the Size of Our Neighborhood Anymore" (Weasel Press, 2020) and "Celestial Night Light" (Ghost City Press, 2020).
But that’s not enough: The senior at ASU leads Arizona Jews For Justice’s unsheltered outreach program, AZ Hugs For the Houseless.
And he has released “Street Sorrows,” a jazz-poetry EP with musician Joe Allie.
Just under a year later, Davis is resurfacing.
A year after he and musician Joe Allie created Street Sorrows, a jazz-poetry EP about homelessness, Davis and Allie will perform the show live at 7 p.m. Saturday, June 25, at Tres Leches Cafe. The show will be recorded and will be followed by an open mic and jam session.
All proceeds will be donated to AZ Hugs For the Houseless, which “aims to spread dignity, respect, understanding, friendship, & love to those experiencing homelessness.”
According to Davis, “The album explores a few of the experiences I’ve had on the streets, along with the complexities of addiction, loneliness, hope, and how the streets can often feel like quicksand, dragging you down harder the more you try to pull yourself out.”
Tres Leches Cafe is at 1714 W Van Buren St., Phoenix, 85007.
Here is a typically brutal-yet-elegant poem by Austin Davis–dubbed by HARK Valley “The Next Bukowski”--from the album that puts his poetry to music:
Leo & Hazel
The sun is setting
like a velvet lid over a coffin.
I sit on Leo and Hazel’s cooler
outside their tent
as flies buzz
around our faces.
Leo slaps at his neck.
I sip my beer and close my eyes.
People all around us
cough and cry
and pray for things I can’t quite hear
and for a moment
the tent city
feels like a living, breathing animal
writhing in pain
from what it ate.
Leo says they found
a dead body
in the dumpster
last night,
a young girl
not much older than me,
naked and beaten.
I open my eyes.
The sky is dark purple
and I know that once it’s night,
the screams of so many
will weigh down our ears
until our heads are too heavy
to lift back up.
Hazel stares at a pigeon
pecking at a blood stain
in the middle of the street
and says she’s going to be
a veterinarian some day
HARK Valley checked in with the poet-activist to see what’s new since last year.
“This last year has been a whirlwind ride, to be honest!” he exclaimed.
On March 1, his “poetry novella” about the last day on Earth, Lotus & The Apocalypse was published by Outcast Press.
Lotus, the hero, is trying to figure out the point of life–as the doomsday clock ticks down…
“The book deals with addiction, mental health, my battles with OCD and depression, love, loss, guilt and more,” he said.
“I really wanted to write something about the power of vulnerability. The story of Lotus is all about being honest with ourselves and our loved ones about our faults and insecurities - these things that we might not want to be honest about, so that we can grow individually and collectively, as a community.”
He did readings around the country, meanwhile finishing his last semester of college–” I wrote essays and took exams in hotel rooms, on buses, on airplanes, and in the middle of the night after shows. It was a crazy experience, but I ended up finishing the tour, and also graduating!”
The best part of the tour, he said, was making emotional connections with readers:
“People have told me how Lotus made them feel seen, comforted, or heard, and how it has helped them with their mental health. For me, that’s the biggest goal with writing. It’s all about showing people that they’re not alone, that no matter what they’re going through, they have the strength to keep going.”
Once he got back to the Valley, he hit the streets again, doing outreach and working toward a massive goal that begins on a personal level: “I’ve also been leading AZ Hugs For the Houseless and working to end homelessness in AZ one person at a time by providing our friends on the streets with a personalized care model built around love, respect and friendship.”
The timing of this weekend’s event is not casual, as the end of June is typically the hottest of brutal summers in the desert.
The outreach Davis and others do can literally be a matter of life and death.
“The summer months are the deadliest time of year in Arizona for those experiencing homelessness. I’ve already found many people this summer all over the Valley who were experiencing heat exhaustion,” Davis said.
“Each day, my team and I are on the streets providing heat relief and actively looking for those who are heat exhausted. I'm very excited for our show this weekend to help support those efforts.”
At the Tres Leches Cafe–in the heart of downtown Phoenix–show, “Folks are invited to bring any resources they’d like to donate, like water, heat relief items, tents, tarps, etc, as well as any monetary donations.”
Austin Davis encourages everyone to scoop out compassion this summer, with small, meaningful actions:
“Freeze some bottles of water at night and before you leave for work in the morning, take them with you and give them out throughout the day when you see someone in need. This is a small act, but it adds up…”