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PARTISAN REVIEW
bitch trying to talk
to
me for." In retrospect I don't think he was that
bad. I think he wanted to talk too. But we were just so tongue tied
with each other.
Int.:
Did he have any idea who you were going
to
be? Did he encourage
you or did he think it peculiar that you persisted in writing poems?
Williams:
He didn't discourage me, and he didn't encourage me. His
sister was my greatest proponent as a poet because oil, the Williams
side we are related
to
Sydney Lanier, the Civil War poet who wrote
"Song of Chattanooga" and "Marshes of Lent" -that's his best
work. Yes, his sister was impressed by my writing poetry. But my
father, he only liked two things of mine,
Baby Doll
and a short poem
called "Kitchen Door Blues." (Tennessee throws his head back and
recites the poem in a very beautiful, deep resonant voice):
MyoId lady died of a common cold.
She smoked cigars and was 90 years old.
She was thin as a paper with the ribs of a kite,
and she blew out the kitchen door one night.
Now, I'm no younger'n the old lady was
When she lost gravitation and
I
smoke cigars
I
get son of peaked an'
I
look kinda pore,
So for God's sake, lock that kitchen doorl
Hahaha. He used to read that out loud, he liked that.
Int.:
And he liked
Baby Doll?
Williams:
Oh yes, he defended
Baby Doll.
In the last picture I have of
him, taken by some Knoxville Newspaper, he is standing under the
marquee of the movie house, pointing at the title of the picture
"Baby Doll" and the caption was "I don't see anything wrong with
this picture." hahahaha!
Int.:
That was as far as he got? Huh? (laughter)
Williams:
Who knows, he was not one who would say. I think he loved
me. I was named for his father, you know. He didn't like the fact that
I was a sissy. He used
to
call me Miss Nancy.
Int.:
Were you a sissy?
Williams:
I was! I didn't do the things he thought I should be doing.
He thought in the summer I should get a job like other boys; he
didn't understand why I was so shy. Well, my mother made me these
things and I think he did too.
Int.:
Was she protective of you?
Williams:
She was totally protective and he was overly the opposite. He
would come slamming drunk in the house and say, "Well, Tom, did
you get a job today?" I would hear him all the way up on the avenue.
