Tom Waits has long been known as one of the finest songwriters and weirdest talents on the music scene. Now, he is branching out into the world of letters with Seeds on Hard Ground, his first book of poetry. The collection will be accompanied by gritty pictures of homeless people taken by acclaimed photojournalist Michael O'Brien, and some of Waits' material seems to reflect that topic, along with his usual cast of street characters. He writes, “I am a seed that fell upon the ground; I am a leaf that fell from an oak tree.” Pretty serious stuff.
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Tom Waits reading the poem “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski: