April 25th, 2025
POEMS
Excerpts from Shotgun Willie and the Outlaw Poems | April 2025
The Plight & the Poet
Will’s business manager, Mark, understood
why Shotgun got fired up by farming.
“He sees himself as a farmer.” A good
number of childhood friends farmed. Alarming
to Will how bad it could get, he started Farm
Aid, “…to protect the farmer from the big
corporations.” Single families harmed,
no resources for scaling up. The poet’s next gig?
Benefits, pitches, convincing senators
To defend folks, their dreams, their tillable soil.
His office phone a crisis hot-line. The war
for small-family farms, their gift, their toil,
almost lost to commoditization. That gun
in the barn won’t solve the bills, just steal the sun.
Mentors & The Road
Willie Nelson and the Record Men drove
from Stamford to Los Angeles, thirty-two
hundred miles for one gig -- sixty-nine hours. Rode
fifteen-thousand miles in eighteen days, tunes
on the AM dial in the Merc’ station wagon.
Willie promised Paul, “I’m going to make it
up to you.” Cash did TV with Dylan.
Waylon sold more. Willie played sad tunes, no hits.
Sinatra fan, he chose shifting beats, tried
jazz-style vocals to country crowds. Proven band
guys mentored unproven: ‘…that shit ain’t gonna fly.’
“We were learning cool tunes.” Bee said. “…jammed
jazz. Older guys taught the younger guys.” Soon
Will bought an Open Road Camper. They kept paying dues.
Whiskey River
Willie committed to stay after every show
on stage, signing autographs until the last
item was signed. My wife’s merch hat cost dough.
“50 bucks?!” She was mad at my gift. I sassed
her stinginess, hurt, sipped my pricy whiskey.
Our tix, an in-law’s X-mas gift. Will ancient,
but Shotgun stepped on stage, nailed a couple nifty
licks on Trigger. T-shirt black, skin crepe. Patient,
the packed, tiered casino venue breathed as one.
Then his voice, his band and Whiskey River broke
open the roar. The room lifting: people up! Cheering his runs
on that battered guitar. The troubadour smoked
out riffs like Hendrix would’ve in his eighties. Will played long.
My wife, joyous, alive! Will signed her hat, then was gone.
About the author: Bruce is an Academic Director at Columbia Business School, where he has leadership and teaching roles in executive education programs. He also teaches the MBA and EMBA management division elective: Leadership through Fiction.
His non-fiction book Win or Die: Leadership Secrets from Game of Thrones, was republished by Codhill Press in 2023. The book was first published by St. Martin’s Press (Macmillan) in March 2019. His most recent novel, set in NYC in the Nineties – Sweet Ride – was published by Codhill Press in 2021. He published a collection of poetry, Buena Suerte in Red Glitter, in 2019 with Red Dirt Press in Oklahoma. He adapted his first novel, Fast Sofa, to film. The movie starred Jennifer Tilly, Jake Busey and Crispin Glover. Bruce’s writing has been translated into Turkish, Serbian, Russian, German and Japanese.
Bruce received his MFA in Poetry from Columbia University’s School of the Arts. He has two BA degrees in Politics (with Honors) and English from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
He lives with his wife and son in the Coachella Valley in California.
