Tom's story: 2000
19 pieces on this page. Click a picture or "See the whole card" to open the card.
2000 — Tom was 21 and 22
19 pieces on this year: 3 dated to this year · 16 from a range of years, shown here in the middle.
DATED TO 2000
1855Disease of Alcoholism
February 25, 2000 (age 21) PROVED
ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS (NOT LYRICS)
The first and last pages of Tom's typed college essay DISEASE OF ALCOHOLISM (February 25, 2000), written after a rehab stay, closing on Alcoholics Anonymous and the desire to be healed.
the card says: made at age 21
See the whole card → 2 pictures
1862Disease of Alcoholism
February 25, 2000 (age 21) PROVED
ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS (NOT LYRICS)
Tom's typed college essay DISEASE OF ALCOHOLISM (February 25, 2000), written after a rehab stay, first and last pages.
the card says: made at age 21
See the whole card → 2 pictures
136It Feels Like Friday Night
2000 (age 21 or 22)
POEMS NOT YET RELEASED
Tom's handwritten short poem IT FEELS LIKE FRIDAY NIGHT ("But it's only a Thursday"), dated 5/10/00 and written on the back of a folded Doc Otis' Hard Lemon promotional table card.
the card says: written in 2000, at age 21 or 22
See the whole card → 2 pictures
ABOUT 2000: FROM A RANGE OF YEARS, SHOWN HERE IN THE MIDDLE
1515Boston Red Sox Ticket Stubs (group 1515)
about 1995-2005 (age 16 to 27) PROVED
OBJECTS AND KEEPSAKES (TICKETS, POSTERS, SIGNS, SHIRTS, A GUITAR)
A group of Tom's Boston Red Sox ticket stubs.
See the whole card → 1 picture
560One day...
about 1998-2002 (age 19 to 24) BEST GUESS
POEMS NOT YET RELEASED
Tom's previously unpublished handwritten story-poem ONE DAY..., in blue ink across two numbered sheets of lined notebook paper, telling of a boy who met a woman and the history they made together.
See the whole card → 4 pictures
1896Hello
about 1998-2003 (age 19 to 25) BEST GUESS
ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS (NOT LYRICS)
Tom's typed love letter that begins Hello, I called you but you weren't home, comparing his heartbeat to the ringing of an unanswered phone, on a single sheet.
See the whole card → 1 picture
25A higher power is what I need
about 2000-2001 (age 21 to 22) - yellow binder line A17: by February 2001: line A17 is in the dated college paper of 9 Feb 2001 (item 1861), if that link holds BEST GUESS
SONGS - WORDS THAT BECAME SONGS (IN THE SONG LISTS)
Tom's handwritten nine-line lyric "A higher power is what I need," about finding your worth when you are not the center of the world, on a spiral-notebook sheet - the words that became the song ALISON'S AIRPLANE (song list 2, track 2).
See the whole card → 1 picture
91WALKING ALONE
about 2000-2001 (age 21 to 22) - yellow binder line B20: by February 2001: line B20 is in the dated college paper of 9 Feb 2001, if that link holds BEST GUESS
POEMS IN POEMS BY TOM
Tom's handwritten poem WALKING ALONE ("Alone in the crowd / My solitary parade"), on a lined sheet torn from a spiral notebook under a bubble-letter title, published in Poems By Tom (2007) and 180 Good Poems (2012).
See the whole card → 1 picture
121Just A Shadow Of Smoke
about 2000-2001 (age 21 to 22) - yellow binder line B20: by February 2001: line B20 is in the dated college paper of 9 Feb 2001, if that link holds BEST GUESS
POEMS IN THE 34 ALBUMS
Tom's handwritten poem JUST A SHADOW OF SMOKE ("That's how I appear / Try to reach out and touch me / What you see disappears"), on pink paper whose back is a printed college student-government election flyer - part of the song BETRAYAL (set list 7, track 9).
See the whole card → 2 pictures
1857WELLNESS PLANNING - Addiction
about 2000-2001 (age 21 to 22) - yellow binder line A17: by February 2001: line A17 is in the dated college paper of 9 Feb 2001 (item 1861), if that link holds BEST GUESS
ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS (NOT LYRICS)
Tom's typed WELLNESS PLANNING - ADDICTION paper (February 9, 2001), in which he works on his own recovery for college credit and weaves in his lyrics ALISON'S AIRPLANE and BREAKING THE CHAINS, with the teacher's notes.
See the whole card → 5 pictures
1975ALISON'S AIRPLANE
about 2000-2001 (age 21 to 22) - yellow binder line A17: by February 2001: line A17 is in the dated college paper of 9 Feb 2001 (item 1861), if that link holds BEST GUESS
SONGS - WORDS THAT BECAME SONGS (IN THE SONG LISTS)
A printed copy, two pages, of Tom's song ALISON'S AIRPLANE, about finding religion in the basement of churches and learning you're not the center of the earth (song list 2, track 2).
See the whole card → 2 pictures
742Happy birthday though I have no card
about 2000-2001 (age 21 to 23) BEST GUESS
POEMS NOT YET RELEASED
Tom's handwritten, never-published birthday poem HAPPY BIRTHDAY THOUGH I HAVE NO CARD, written in blue ink on lined notebook paper in place of a card, from his early yellow binder years (ages 18 to 23).
See the whole card → 2 pictures
971And though I get my A's
about 1997 to 2004 (age 18 to 26) LIKELY
LOOSE LYRICS, ONE-LINERS AND RHYME WORD BANKS
Tom's handwritten four-line poem "And though I get my A's / I really pay my dues," followed by his quote from Hemingway's A Very Short Story and his own note on why Hemingway puts the reader right there, in black ink on a spiral-pad sheet of lined paper; previously unpublished.
the card says: written at about age 18 to 26 (1997 to 2004)
See the whole card → 1 picture
1064My Hand Is But Symbolic
about 1996 to 2004 (age 18 to 26) LIKELY
POEMS NOT YET RELEASED
Tom's handwritten poem MY HAND IS BUT SYMBOLIC in ink on lined notebook paper, about a man imprisoned by the watch on his wrist, with his own note that it came to him walking home from school, hurrying to call his girlfriend by 9:30; published in the Tom Jensen Poem Anthology (2013).
the card says: written at about age 18 to 26 (1996 to 2004)
See the whole card → 2 pictures
1501COLLAGE-COVERED YELLOW NOTEBOOK - LOVE IS DEAD / MOW YOUR GOAT
about 2000-2001 (age 21 to 23) BEST GUESS
POEMS NOT YET RELEASED
Tom's short poem NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, a warning that whether it is pills or dollar bills trouble will follow you, kept with a yellow lined notebook of handwritten verses, block-lettered titles and drawings; published in Shorter Lyrics (2013) and Tom's Anthology (2011 and 2012).
See the whole card → 5 pictures
78Empty limes are being filled
about 1998-2003 (age 19 to 25) NOT SURE
POEMS NOT YET RELEASED
Tom's handwritten green-ink poem "Empty limes are being filled," with lines on Saddam Hussein's oil and the Exxon Valdez, on a white sheet of paper.
Dated from this piece's own words, the dated books and the pieces around it; this date is not sure.
See the whole card → 1 picture
1511HANDWRITTEN NOTE - GRANDMA DIZZY
about 1996-2004 (age 18 to 26), a college literature class BEST GUESS
ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS (NOT LYRICS)
Tom's handwritten personal notes headed Grandma Dizzy, fragmentary family thoughts in faint cursive on a sheet of lined loose-leaf torn from a binder; never before published.
the card says: from a college literature class, about 1996-2004 (age 18 to 26)
See the whole card → 1 picture
1547HANDWRITTEN NOTE - RESTORATION / GOOD MORNING
about 1996-2004 (age 18 to 26), a college literature class BEST GUESS
ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS (NOT LYRICS)
Tom's short handwritten note in scrawled cursive on torn lined loose-leaf, about being restored and being a good man, ending with the best of us - good morning; never before published.
the card says: from a college literature class, about 1996-2004 (age 18 to 26)
See the whole card → 1 picture
A WIDE GUESS: MORE THAN 10 YEARS, SHOWN HERE IN THE MIDDLE
1519Sports Ticket Stub Collection And Lynnfield HS 1997 Graduation Program
about 1995-2006 (age 17 to 27) - a wide guess BEST GUESS
SCHOOL AND GROWING-UP KEEPSAKES
A set of Tom's ticket stubs, including a 2005 Red Sox game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Tropicana Field, an Oakland Athletics game and an Independence National Historical Park ticket, kept with a printed Lynnfield High School graduation program from June 15, 1997.
the card says: dated from age 17 to age 27
See the whole card → 5 pictures
MEMORABILIA FROM THIS STORY
Every card on this page is a real piece — 19 pieces.
IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY:
What the words mean: PROVED a date or a dated book proves it. BEST GUESS our best reading, not yet proved. TOM SAID Tom's own word. LIKELY strong clues, not yet proved. NOT PROVED an estimate from the pieces around it. NOT SURE the sources disagree. No word: the card gives none yet. "About 1996-2002" means somewhere in those years; the piece is shown once, in the middle year.