Creative Non-Fiction

The original Why It Matters story sprawls across the following 251 numbered pieces. Following those you’ll find links to more recent CNF pieces.

1. The Mamas, The Papas, and The Grandpas
2. School’s Out Forever
3. When Am I Gonna Come Down?
4. My Dark Confession
5. Show Me the Way
6. Just For One Day
7. Your Dreams Were Your Ticket Out
8. You Can Check Out Any Time You Like
9. The Cutout Bin
10. Loose Nut

11. Hey It’s Good To Be Back Home Again
12. Does Anybody Want To Get Mellow?
13. Never Before Have I Turned On You
14. What Time Is It?
15. A Rambling Prologue To A Long Overdue Post
16. Your Lightnin’s All I Need
17. Like A World Without Sun
18. If Never I Met You
19. Who Can Go the Distance?
20. This One Goes Out to the Ones I Left Behind

21. Who Are You?
22. Life Begins at the Hop
23. Here Comes the Savage Day
24. Thank You Driver For Getting Me Here
25. A Live Wire, Barely A Beginner
26. This Is the First Song Off Our New Album
27. I’ve Been Trying to Get a Message Through the Air to You
28. Leaving the Things That You Love From Mind
29. You Don’t Know What the Sound Is, Darlin’
30. Strewn With Time’s Dead Flowers

31. I Was Walking In He Was Walking Out
32. What’s Your Favorite Color Baby?
33. I Don’t Know How You Were Inverted
34. Little John the Conqueroo
35. Take Your Time, Don’t Live Too Fast
36. So I Lit A Fire, Isn’t It Good?
37. Loneliness Will Haunt You, Will You Sacrifice?
38. What Song Is It You Want to Hear?
39. That Sleepwalk Should Be Over By Now
40. To Learn How To Love And Forget How To Hate

41. We Rock At Dawn On the Front Line
42. Changes Aren’t Permanent (But Change Is)
43. A One-Way Ticket, Only One Way To Go
44. Won’t You Help Me Girl Just As Soon As You Can?
45. As Deep As Any Ocean, As Sweet As Any Harmony
46. Shake the Dust Off Of Your Wings and the Tears Out Of Your Eyes
47. Rising Up To the Challenge Of Our Rivals
48. Once We Had An Easy Ride and Always Get the Same
49. This Is A Public Service Announcement (With Guitars)
50. The Punk and the Godfather (Why It Matters Revisited)

The Cutout Bin Revisited
51. I Hate the Teachers and the Principal, Don’t Wanna Be Taught to be No Fool
52. Devil’s In the House of the Rising Sundae
53. Try To Use A Mirror, No Bullet Or Knife
54. It’s So Easy To Fly Through A Window
55. At the Late Night Double Feature Picture Show
56. The Brightest Fireplace Glows In Every Face
57. I’d Give You Everything I’ve Got For A Little Piece Of Mind
58. I Can’t Wait For You to Operate
Ventriloquism For Dummies
59. Pretty Young Things, Repeat After Me
60. I Wondered If I Had Enough Class

61. Bewitched
62. Turn and Face the Strange
63. The Alton Ellis Incident
64. I Started Drifting To A Different Place
65. Wherein I Am Completely Wrong
66. Give Me Three Steps Toward The Door
67. I’m Up and Down and In Between
68. Just Sitting Here Watching The Wheels Go Round and Round
69. But You Know You’re Not Dreaming, Signore
70. The Dream Is Always The Same

71. Surrender My Good Life Or Bad
72. But I Swear It Was In Self-Defense
73. I’d Like It If They Like Us, But I Don’t Think They Like Us
74. Gonna Get Inside Your Bitter Mind
75. I Don’t Believe In Peter Pan, Frankenstein Or Superman
76. Return Of The Son Of Cutout Bin
77. Everyone’s Breaking Past My Speed Of Sound
78. But Ain’t That America
79. No One Will Guide You Through Armagideon Time

80. Though I Am Weary I Can’t Stop To Rest
81. You Know That The Hypnotized Never Lie
82. If I Could Buy My Reasoning I’d Pay To Lose
83. Not Everyone Can Carry The Weight Of The World
84. Happiness I Cannot Feel And Love To Me Is So Unreal
85. Between The Velvet Lies There’s A Truth That’s Hard As Steel
86. Forgotten Lies Aim To Distract Me
87. Who’s Going To Teach Me Peace And Happiness?
88. Oh I Have Been Out Searching With the Black Book In My Hand
89. Radio’s On and I’m Moving ‘Round the Place

90. I’ve Got A Handful Of This, What Do I Do With It?
91. More Fun In the New World
92. In the Eyes Of the Confessor You Can’t Tell A Lie
93. Face To Face and Back To Back
94. A Message That I’m Sending Out Like A Telegraph
95. And I’ll Lay Right Down In My Favorite Place
96. How Long Can I Carry This Monkey Around?
97. Keep Your Eyes on the Road, Your Hands Upon the Wheel
98. Lots of Trouble, Lots of Bubble
99. Falcon Spirals to the Ground

100. When Two Tribes Go To War
101. December
102. I’m Relying On Your Common Decency
103. Take Me By the Hand This Is All I Can Offer You
104. You’re A Daisy If You Do
105. Giving Me Everything Inside and Out
106. They’re Gonna Find the Queen is a Man
107. All My Goodness Has Turned to Badness
108. These City Lights, They Shine as Silver and Gold
109. It’s Up to Me Now, My Daddy Has Gone Away

110. But I Just Wanna Stay in the Garage All Night
111. What’s It Gonna Be, Boy?
112. I’d Hate To Look Into Those Eyes and See an Ounce of Pain
113. I Have Only One Burning Desire…
114. You Don’t Know How to Play the Game
115: It’s A Beautiful Day For A Rerun
116. You Act As If You Just Don’t Care
117. Stars Will Fall From Dark Skies
118. The Boys Are Back In Town
119. Return of the Son of Son of Return of the Son of the Cutout Bin

120. The Turn of a Friendly Card
121. Goodnight, You Moonlight Ladies
122. Don’t Leave Me Hanging on the Telephone
123. Tell Your Mama Babe
124. When You Change With Every New Day
125. Whatsoever I’ve Feared Has Come To Life
126. The Eyes That Just Stare, and the Glance at the Clock
127. Feels So Good
128. Staring at the Sea, Staring at the Sand
129. Count Your Coins and Throw Them Over My Shoulder

130. Water Was Running, Children Were Running
131. I’ll Take You Where You Really Need to Be
132. Out to the Air Above
133. I’ll Meet You Any Time You Want in Our Italian Restaurant
134. If I Worked My Hands in Wood, Would You Still Love Me?
135. Down Goes Frazier
136. Mirror in the Bathroom, Please Talk to Me
137. How Can We Dance When Our Earth is Turning?
138. Lifestyles of the Fresh and Fly
139. Thirty Square Feet

140. Headin’ Into Twilight
141. Daddy Rabbit
142. If There is Music We Can Use It
143. And in These Days When Darkness Falls Early
144. There’s No Need to Argue
145. Whatever This World Can Give To Me
146. The Barbarossa Express
147. Senseless Working Overtime
148. Falling on My Head Like a Memory
149. As Lonely as the Road I’m On

150. The Inevitable Death of the Quincymobile
151. To Some Other Garden of Sweet Delight
152. Many Times I’ve Gazed Along the Open Road
153. The Sincerest Tree in the Aluminum Forest
154. Hanging Out by the State Line
155. There’s Always Something Happening and it’s Usually Quite Loud
156. Fragments for a New Years Story
157. Disturbance at the Hanner House
158. Martin Luther King and the Great Hopscotch Leap
159. Crushin’

160. It Ain’t Easy Living Like You Wanna
161. Cindy Incidentally
162. The Closet Monster
163. But the Music Makes Her Want to be the Story
164. The Untimely Death of Corporal Otis Stafford
165. The Waiting is the Hardest Part
166. Would You Like to Trip Now?
167. It’s a Sad Affair When There’s No One There
168. Last Lions Roar Before They’re Tamed
169. Since I Packed Up and Left On My Own

170. Here’s To Every Time That You Rocked the Boat
171. She Was Holding It Back It Hurts So Bad
172. Maybe He’s Caught in the Mood
173. Telling Myself It’s Not As Hard, Hard, Hard As It Seems
174. You Can Taste the Bright Lights (But You Won’t Get Them for Free)
175. With Two Cats in the Yard Life Used to be so Hard
176. With the Devil Snapping at My Heels
177. People Going Nowhere Taken For A Ride
178. Truth and Soul
179. There’s No People Like Show People
180. Everyone’s Creeping Up to the Money God
181. It Doesn’t Matter To Me, Chasing the Clouds Away
182. Thanksgiving
183. Or Are You Really Scheming To Take My Ship Away?
184. And Butterflies Are Free To Fly
185. It’s A Lot Like Life
186. Lies Lies Lies Yeah
187. For Art’s Sake
188. Heads I Win Tails You Lose (Lord It’s Such A Crime)
189. Long Legs and Burgundy Lips

190. The Baptism
191. Out All Night, Sleep All Day (I Know What You’re Doing)
192. No Talk and Then All Action
193. Jimmy Tickets
194. Mr. Nice Guy
195. I Still Don’t Know What I Was Waiting For
196. Get Out of Bed, There’ll Be No More Napping (Wake Up!)
197. When I’m Driving In My Car
198. Mr. Warmth
199. One In A Million

200. Can’t Happen Here
201. Stray Party
202. Rabbit vs. Predator
203. Where’s Johnny?
204. Sittin’ On Top of the World
205. The Inevitable Death of the Cordoba
206. Drive-In Saturday
207. We Go Round and Round and Round
208. We Love You, Pacific Ocean Blue
209. Lessons Learned From an Oscar Winner

210. They Come With Smiles
211. Two Years Ago the Seed Was Planted
212. No More of that Jazz
213. And I Know What’s Happening
214. Shocker
215. The Cookies Are Always Just Out Of Reach
216. So You Want To Be An Assistant Film Editor
217. The Human Shield
218. You Know For Us These Are The Days
219. The Mid-Twenty Joys Around A Heart That’s Black and Blue

231. I Really Don’t Care Anymore About All the Jim-Jim’s in This Town
232. Mirror in the Bathroom Please Talk Free
233. Unpaid Bills In Afghanistan Hills
234. Blue Days Black Nights (Doo Wah Doo Lang)
235. James Scared Stupid
236. Hey Verne, It’s Me, James
237. I Cannot Get Over the Reality of My Surroundings
238. Surprise Surprise (So You Rubbed Your Eyes)
239. They’ll Slam Ya Down to the Street Top

Creative Non-Fiction

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