PERSONAL AGENDAS

Written in the spirit of Anaís Nin and Marcel Proust, Personal Agendas kicks off the three-part series Travels With Joe, comprised of diaries and journals from Pamela Adams Hirst. This volume includes her first book of poetry, Personal Agendas, written as she and Joe Speer burst on the poetry scene in Nashville, Tennessee, as the Beatlicks.
Autobiographical poems of 1016 Kipling Drive recall a Southern childhood growing up with the A bomb in a violent home.
Postcards From Paris records a rescue mission to help a friend enter the Alcoholics Anonymous program and the subsequent flight to Barcelona.
The first three Beatlick Tours in the series narrate an epic 20,000-mile journey to protest the Iraq War while promoting poetry and peace; stories of NYC post 9/11; The People´s Poetry Gathering; Louisiana pre-Katrina; the Burning Man Festival; a near-death experience in Oregon and surviving surgery on the streets of Seattle.

Turning east again, the 71 VW bus makes  a sweep across Texas back to New Mexico and breaks down in the South Valley of Albuquerque. And there it remains while the Beatlicks take off for Mexico. The Beatlick story continues in the Travels With Joe series.

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GHOST TOWNS OF MY SOUL

The second book in the Travels With Joe series continues peregrinations with Beatlick Joe Speer, on the road Kerouac-style in a 71 VW van, publishing and performing poetry all the way. Written by Pamela Adams Hirst, this volume begins in Zihuatanejo, Mexico, followed by a sailing adventure to beach resorts towards the Gulf of California, before jumping ship in Mazatlán.

Returning to the US, the van is restored and packed up again for more touring, but not before a breast lump scare. 

Retired, living in the van, the Beatlicks launch west from Joe’s beloved NMSU campus after a Mariachi Conference, far into the wilds of the Southwest. Ghost towns, abandoned mines and remote hot springs are the destinations. They shelter at night in Walmart parking lots all the way to San Diego and back again.

Following Highway 90 to New Orleans, poetry is offered up at the Maple Leaf Bar. Picking up the Natchez Trace, the Beatlicks head to Nashville to restore the family home. Back on the road, a winter is spent in survival mode near Study Butte, Texas; the mysterious Marfa Lights are experienced.

The courses run from Slab City to the Grand Canyon, from the Chimayo Pilgrimage in New Mexico to the back bayous of Louisiana. The return to New Mexico allows Joe time to locate the Melanie Hot Springs, the final item on a bucket list he started twenty years before, little knowing that the Beatlicks were heading to the end of the road as well. The story continues in the Travels With Joe series.

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ONE DOZEN LIFETIMES

The third book of the series Travels With Joe culminates two decades of traveling, journaling and seeking a path to the best life along the way, with Beatlick Joe Speer. Written by Pamela Adams Hirst, One Dozen Lifetimes chronicles The Death Tour, Joe’s slow ride from Palm Beach, Florida, back to Albuquerque, New Mexico, after he is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He becomes a source of inspiration to his supporting family and friends as he bravely faces his final trek.

There is an arduous trek for Pamela as well as she navigates a new path alone. Leaving Joe in the Bernalillo County morgue, she heads due south to Oaxaca, Mexico. The curanderas in the City of the Clouds initiate her healing; the Palomazo open-mic at Nuevo Babel Café offers comfort and a home for her poetic efforts; and a return to yoga practice all help bring renewal, rejoicing, and the healing begins.

Ultimately she returns to Albuquerque and is able to bury Joe in a common grave with over 80 other souls, their boxed ashes all buried in one casket at the Evangelico Cemetery. One year later, the grave is documented by the Dead Poet Society. Joe´s Beatlick News Poetry and Arts Newsletter is archived in numerous universities and his personal library is archived in his alma mater, New Mexico State University.

A single traveler now, Pamela’s treks begin with a train ride from Albuquerque to San Francisco for the Bay to Breakers Marathon; a pilgrimage to the City Lights Bookstore; and a poetic gathering with friends at the infamous Vesuvio Café.

During her time in Joe’s hometown of Albuquerque, Beatlick Press was established to publish Joe’s one and only book, Backpack Trekker: A 60s Flashback. Over thirty books from the press now provide his heritage and perpetuate his legacy.

Ultimately, life on the road, the call for adventure send Pamela back to Oaxaca, Mexico, where she remains for six years before moving to her new home in Mexico City. Now with the conclusion of this series, Beatlick Joe Speer’s story is known. His wit and wisdom live on as one reads these journals. He was exceptional, he was unforgettable.