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Photo by Matt Jordan

Well, this is random: Two years after moving to Nashville from his hometown of Detroit, Jack White has written a poem honoring the Motor City.

According to the Detroit Free Press, where his poem appears [via Stereogum], the White Stripes frontman is making an act of penance of sorts for comments he made about the city's music scene in a recent Rolling Stone article about White's other band, the Raconteurs.

White explained his comments ("I couldn't breathe anymore in that scene") to the Free Press by saying they were not "a representation of my feelings about Detroit the city, a town that I have strong feelings about...nor were they expressions about its citizens."

White prefaced his poem thusly: "The following poem is the Detroit from my mind, the Detroit that is in my heart, the home that encapsulates and envelops those who are truly blessed with the experience of living within its boundaries."

Check out the poem, "Courageous Dream's Concern", below. White's Raconteurs dates are after that.

Courageous Dream's Concern

I have driven slow,
three miles an hour or so,
through Highland Park, Heidelberg, and the
Cass Corridor.
I've hopped on the Michigan,
and transferred to the Woodward,
and heard the good word blaring from an
a.m. radio.
I love the worn-through tracks of trolley
trains breaking through their
concrete vaults,
As I ride the Fort Street or the Baker,
just making my way home.

I sneak through an iron gate, and fish
rock bass out of the strait,
watching the mail boat with
its tugboat gait,
hauling words I'll never know.
The water letter carrier,
bringing prose to lonely sailors,
treading the big lakes with their trailers,
floats in blue green chopping waters,
above long-lost sunken failures,
awaiting exhumation iron whalers,
holding gold we'll never know.

I've slid on Belle Isle,
and rowed inside of it for miles.
Seeing white deer running alongside
While I glide, in a canoe.
I've walked down Caniff holding a glass
Atlas root beer bottle in my hands
And I've entered closets of coney islands
early in the morning too.
I've taken malt from Stroh's and Sanders,
felt the black powder of abandoned
embers,
And smelled the sawdust from wood cut
to rehabilitate the fallen edifice.
I've walked to the rhythm of mariachis,
down junctions and back alleys,
Breathing fresh-baked fumes of culture
nurtured of the Latin and the
Middle East.
I've fallen down on public ice,
and skated in my own delight,
and slid again on metal crutches
into trafficked avenues.

Three motors moved us forward,
Leaving smaller engines to wither,
the aluminum, and torpedo,
Monuments to unclaimed dreaming.
Foundry's piston tempest captured,
Forward pushing workers raptured,
Frescoed families strife fractured,
Encased by factory's glass ceiling.

Detroit, you hold what one's been seeking,
Holding off the coward-armies weakling,
Always rising from the ashes
not returning to the earth.

I so love your heart that burns
That in your people's body yearns
To perpetuate,
and permeate,
the lonely dream that does encapsulate,
Your spirit, that God insulates,
With courageous dream's concern.

The Raconteurs:

07-07 Montreux, Switzerland - Montreux Jazz Festival
07-08 Turin, Italy - Spaziale
07-09 Ferrara, Italy - Sotto le Stelle
07-12 Balado, Scotland - T in the Park
07-13 Naas, Ireland - Oxegen Festival
07-18 Angoulême, France - Garden Nef Party
07-19 Benicàssim, Spain - Festival Internacional de Benicàssim
08-01 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-09 Pittsburgh, PA - New American Music Union Festival
08-23 Reading, England - Reading Festival
08-24 Leeds, England - Leeds Festival
08-29 Paris, France - Rock en Seine
09-16 Portland, Oregon - Roseland Theater *
09-17 Portland, Oregon - Roseland Theater *
09-18 Vancouver, British Columbia - Malkin Bowl (Stanley Park) *
09-19 Seattle, WA - WaMu Theater *
09-21 San Francisco, CA - Treasure Island Music Festival
09-22 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theater *
09-24 San Diego, CA - SDSU Open Air Theater *
09-25 Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl *
09-28 Austin, TX - Zilker Park (Austin City Limits Festival)
09-29 Memphis, TN - Cannon Center *
09-30 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium *
10-01 Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle *

* with the Kills