The impulse to map
is like the impulse to speak –

to mark a place
like holding an idea.

The tangible and intangible
kept like dogs on a leash,

with just enough slack
to smell the piss on your tires,

and then, to add their own.

–Jim Lally,
Stick Tight Man (2010)
Accents Publishing

More from Stick Tight Man and Jim Lally:

• “Stick Tight Man”
• “Old Couple”
• “Stick Tight Man: An Appreciation” by Matthew Haughton
• “Buddhism”

Jim Lally is a Kentucky poet known for his curly white beard and straggly ponytail. He is a member of the Poets’ Supper, Poezia, and Holler writers’ groups as well as the founding member of Writers at Artcroft. He graduated with a degree in English from Brescia College where he was the editor of the school’s first literary magazine. Jim has been the Spoken Word artist at the Walk for the Arts in Berea for the last two years. He is a partner with his wife, Jennifer Gleason, in the organic farm business of Sunflower Sundries. His poetry ranges from the irregularly scattered to the tangle of