Tom Waits Combines Homelessness and Poetry in First Book 'Hard Ground"

If there was ever a musician worthy of calling himself a poet, it's Tom Waits. So it should be no surprise that the eccentric troubadour has announced the release of 'Hard Ground,' a book that will combine his poetry with photographer Michael O'Brien's images of the homeless.

The book, which is modeled after 1941's 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' -- a collaboration between poet James Agee and Walker Evans, who supplied shots of Depression-era farmers -- marks Waits publishing debut and will be released this March.

Publisher University of Texas explains the ethos behind the book as such: "[O'Brien will] create a portrait of homelessness that impels us to look into the eyes of people who live on the hard ground and recognize our common humanity. For Waits, who has spent decades writing about outsiders, this subject is familiar territory."

While musicians playing around with poetry doesn't always produce the most dazzling outcome -- Jewel's 1998 'A Night Without Armor' was about as riveting as an in-flight safety manual, while Wilco's Jeff Tweedy didn't fare much better in parts of his 2004 collection, 'Adult Head' -- Waits is arguably the best candidate to join Leonard Cohen as a double-threat poet and songwriter.

And despite his previous trepidations about the artform -- "Poetry is a very dangerous word," Waits said in a 1975 interview, according to TwentyFourBit. "I don't like the stigma that comes with being called a poet. So I call what I'm doing an improvisational adventure or an inebriational travelogue" -- the prolific singer-songwriter admits that he was compelled to embark on the poetry project by a desire to communicate the "common humanity" of people who live on the streets. It is his hope, as well as O'Brien's, that the poetry and images will "communicate on their own terms, rather than merely illustrate each other."

'Hard Ground' is Waits' first collaboration with O'Brien, but the acclaimed photographer has frequently taken pictures of the musician, and also shot the cover of his 2009 album, 'Glitter and Doom Live.'