'Let His Pen Do the Talking': Johnny Cash's Poetry Revealed in Rolling Stone

A new book, Forever Words: The Unknown Poems, proves that Johnny Cash's legacy is as much on the page as it is in the airwaves. John Carter Cash, who manages his family's "multiple creative estates," collaborated with poet Paul Muldoon to put together this sharp compendium revealing 41 of Cash's most "cohesive, beautiful and powerful" messages. We pick up in the midst of Carter Cash and Muldoon's process:

Their combined efforts resulted in a rich collection of poems written by Cash throughout his life, from the fresh-faced wisdom of his 12-year-old self in 1944 ("The Things We're Frightened At") to a wistful remembrance jotted down just weeks before his death in 2003 ("Forever").
"Along with the music, there is a large part of my father's legacy that has to do with what he had to say," says Cash. "What he believed in, what he stood for, the understanding of his own darkness, the faith that he had that drove him, and the great love that he had for people. All of these things are present here in this collection of his written works."

In fact, it is the successful showcasing of the many multitudes that co-existed within Cash's storied life that makes the poems in Forever Words feel so fresh and genuine. Love, mortality, addiction, humor, spirituality, pain, wonder, hope, heartbreak, freedom and resignation all weave in and out of Cash's poetry – just as they did in his songs – in an attempt to paint the most accurate portrait of his true self. For the younger Cash, this "warts and all" approach also provides for an undeniably personal connection: "When I read these poems, it's as if my father is speaking to me again."

Adding to the humanity already present in the poetry of Forever Words, Cash also sprinkled reproductions of many of his father's original handwritten drafts throughout the book. Grade-school penmanship is deliberately plotted out on a weathered piece of ruled notebook paper in the words of "The Things We're Frightened At." "I'm Comin', Honey" captures hastily scrawled lines feverishly jotted down on a sheet of Delta Airlines in-flight stationary. And whimsical margin doodles accompany the playful text to "Don't Make a Movie About Me."

Read more (before purchasing your copy) at Rolling Stone. Muldoon's own take on the book can be found here.