Who Really Cares:
Poems From Childhood
And Early Youth

by Janis Ian

Originally released by Doubleday in 1969.
Re-release by Hawk Publishing Group October 2002.

Original copies can sometimes be found at:
abebooks.com
amazon.com
ebay.com
and are occasionally auctioned off by Janis to benefit The Pearl Foundation.

Includes six poems banned from the original book, and a long forward by Ian.

Says Janis: "The problem with writing a book of poetry, if you are a songwriter, is that you are a songwriter. You are not a poet.
At 15 I thought, excusably perhaps, that they were one and the same. It took me several years of hard work at my craft as a songwriter to discover that songs and poetry are about as alike as songs and chickens - both have their own life and there is a natural order to that life, but otherwise they are very, very different."

79th Street

Sunday night at the pool hall
i had an uncle tom
retrieve my ping pong
and each time i lost the ball
he bent to receive it
Somehow symbolic
behind the veneer and shuffle
i knew he laughed
much harder than i

I Love Your Chest Like Cat's Tongue

I love
your chest
like cat's tongue
    ready for the feast
    and also the
fur
like cat's fur
coiled and waiting I love
your hands
a parrot-wing
brushing the dust off
    my corpse
o to be with you
    forever
in our cat's house of
    clay
I love your
ears like
cat's ears
    prickling my
    every sound
    to see your
nails like
cat feet
dart across my back
    dearest but
    most of all I love your
eyes
like cat's eyes
glowing
    after the feast

Poems for the Young Psychologist

i was going to take a bath
and mommy said don't
overload the tub don't
take too many toys don't
eat the soap
and the tub began to leak
i took too many toys
froze to death and
chewed on the soap
and when she asked where
did you ever get ideas like that
i said i just don't

we went to stay with grandma and i said
o i forgot my lucky dog
mommy said dear its
old and its hair is
gone and anyway you mustnt be so
dependent
sleep without him
and i said well
you are old
and daddy still sleeps with you

one day i took a rock and threw it at mommy
& it hit the window which
b r o k e
daddy raised his hand to
hit me but mommy said don't
she'll get a complex
and daddy said sometimes dear you are just
too damned progressive

we were eating when daddy came
home from a long tiring day and
started complaining how come the
food wasnt hot and the
steak was no good and the
house was all dirty and he
turned to me and
opened up his mouth and
i said
don't take your frustrations out on me
baby

you are too cute for words

you are
too cute
for words

the way your
eyes swing
back and forth
when no one's looking

the way your hair
softens the pillow
as you sleep
unintended

i think sometimes
i am the luckiest person on earth
but then i realize
there's a universe out there
and it's filled
with your grace