Thom Gunn Dies

Poet A.D. Winans sent out this announcement about the passing of Thom Gunn.

I saw the obit of Thom Gunn today in the San Francisco Chronicle. He was a favorite poet of mine, who was born in Britan, but who had lived in San Francisco the past 40 years. He died in his sleep, apparently from a heart attack. He was a unique poet in that he was equally at home in rhyme, non-rhyme, in free verse and patterned rhythms. Perhaps he was such a favorite of mine because of his compassion for the dispossessed, those looked down on by society, and his insight made them into likeable if not loveable persons, in his poems.

He was the recipient of many literary awards, not only from his native country, but the prestigious MacArthur Foundation which bestowed on him in 1992 a $369,000 fellowship for life time achievement in poetry.

He was what many might call an Outlaw poet, "wearing leather when lecturing at the University of
California, and "identified with the biker culture." He disliked "snob snob-constructed divisions
separating "high culture" from "low" culture." In short, he was my kind of poet.

One of my favorite poems which was quoted in the obituary written for his lover, whose "abiding bond lasted through frequent separations:"

"As you began
You'll end the year with me
We'll hug each other while
we can
Work or stay while we must.
Nothing is, or will ever be,
Mine, I suppose. No one can
hold a heart.
But what we had in trust
We do hold, even apart."

He often wrote poems about San Francisco, the city of my own birth, ranging from poems about the homeless people on the streets to the beauty of the landscape.

There are only a few days left in April, the month that celebrates poetry, and you would do well to celebrate it by becoming familiar with the work of Thom Gunn.

-- a. d. winans | 4-28-04

'Last Exit,' 'Requiem' author Selby dead

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Hubert Selby Jr., the acclaimed and anguished author of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, died Monday of a lung disease, his wife said. He was 75. Selby died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, said his wife of 35 years, Suzanne. Born in New York City, Selby's experience among Brooklyn's gritty longshoremen, homeless and the down-and-out formed the basis for his lauded 1964 novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn," which was made into a film in1989.

"It was a seminal piece of work. It broke so many traditions," said Jim Regan, head of the master's of professional writing program at the USC, where Selby taught as an adjunct professor for the past 20 years.

"There was that generation of writers: William Burroughs, Henry Miller, and there was Hubert Selby. And he's one of the last of that generation, of some of the greatest writers in this country."

SPC:25

The Sacramento Poetry Center celebrates its 25th anniversary tonight.

A history of the Sacramento Poetry Scene

There were about 15 of us for Bari Kennedy's History of Poetry in Sacramento lecture; Ann Menebroker, of course, Danyen Powell, Laverne Frith, Doe and Pearl Stein Selinsky among them. Linda Thorell was video-taping, a good thing. Perhaps the best annual state-of-the-state of poetry address B.L. given yet. Focused, informative, and just enough of Bari's subjective patina to make it interesting without devolving into a Kvetch about how little this scene respects him, something that's happened in previous years. Pity about the turnout, but it was a busy evening in the local scene: Jose Montoya and Kimberly White at Barnes & Noble; D.R. Wagner performing in the Low Flying Owls at Patrick Grizzell's Songwriter's showcase at The Art Foundry. Would love to see Bari deliver this lecture again sometime this year. Bigger venue; closer to the heart of the scene rather than its outskirts -- the event was at the South Natomas library. A few disagreements. He did decry the Flor Y Canto as "a failure," which, while a matter of opinion, is just wrong. And a bit of a contradiction from a man singing its praises at the James DenBoer reading (4/5) one day after the Flor Y Canto Festival ended. The Flor Y Canto riff was a brief element of his lecture. Indeed, he seemed to avoid discussing anything about the Sacramento Poetry Scene after say 1999 in anything but the abstract. Appropriate, I think, because Bari's real and profound involvement in the scene (founding readings,
holding marathons, work on Landing Signals) is all now historical. While the current scene
flourishes in large part because of the efforts of him and the others, he now is kind of the grizzled old sage, sitting on the sidelines issuing toothy proclamations as to the way things were and they way things oughta be. This year marks the 25th and final year of Kennedy's biggest ongoing contribution to the Sacramento scene: October in the Railroad Earth, a tribute to Kerouac and the Beats. Though Bari has expressed some regret about ending the long-running annual event, I hope it goes out with a memorable bang. A Flourish. Perhaps then, Bari can focus some energy on his finishing his book about Cleveland poet d.a. levy.

Production Notes

Sacramento-poet/journalist Rachel Savage has organized a poetry reading for May 1st at the Sacramento Old City Cemetery. When PFA originally published her Savage Haiku (PFA #258) Rachel and I decided to leave out the haiku poem Cemetery so that we could make a special booklet (PFA #313) to be given away at the May 1st event. Printed on high gloss paper, it unfolds without a cover to showcase the haiku, a small essay on the Old City Cemetery, as well as miniaturized reproductions of rubbings that Rachel took from stone surfaces within the cemetery. After Rachel came by the bookstore yesterday to tweak the essay text, I finished production and printed out 100 copies of PFA #313. As per the Cemetery Association's request, the booklets won't be folded. They plan to laminate and distribute like a bookmark. Also in production for this event are copies of Dictionary: G (PFA #210) by Pearl Stein Selinsky who is also a featured reader at the May 1st cemetary event.

Debbie Kirk | I Hit Like a Girl

"Bukowski didn't have a crown, but if he did, if he had, Debbie Kirk is who should be wearing it, not all these limp-dick pretenders to the throne."
-- John Bennett

Debbie Kirk's (PFAs #348, #349)chap I Hit Like A Girl is now available from feelfreepress (UK)75 copies available; UK/Europe - £2.00 + £1.00 P&P ; USA - $4.00 + $2.00 P&P. We accept Palpay (address -orders@feelfreepress.co.uk) or you can send well concealed cash or cheques (UK Only) payable to Feel Free Press to - Feel Free Press, Flat 2, 20 Parkfield Road, Aigburth, Liverpool, Merseyside, L17 8UJ, UK.

Here's th' promo blurb:
21 previously unpublished poems. An amazing collection, powerful, emotional, antagonistic, fragile, brutally honest, at times funny but always breath taking. Debbie Kirk’s ‘I Hit Like A Girl’ will leave you feeling as if you've just taken a drive around her head and come face to face with all her demons. Be prepared for a bumpy ride, Kirk hasn’t had it easy, nor does she make it easy for the reader, but the journey is well worth it.

Read their Kirk Interview.

Phil Goldvarg Tribute

I admire Sacramento poet Phil Goldvarg and wanted to honor him at his reading tonight at the Luna's Cafe Poetry Unplugged reading. So, I published ten of Phil's poems in PFA which will be distributed for the first time at tonight's event.

(PFA #361) Marching with the Eagle. Published on Red coverstock.

(PFA #362) The Eagle is Not Down. Published on cinammon coverstock.

(PFA #368) Frida on Paper. Published on white coverstock.

(PFA #369) Full cover.

(PFA #370) Che.

Luna's | Everything means nothing to me

Thursday at Luna's | Indigo Moor reads Martin Espada's The Foreman's Wallet | Robert Roden (PFAs #216, 218, 220) reads his dirge to Elliot Smith, Everything means nothing to me to which Frank Andrick (PFA #207) answers with a dirge to Kurt Cobain: The Bitter Trigger | "What kind of man wrote this book?!" Isherwood on Baudelaire | Bloom's cemetery read, Saturday, Noon, bring a box lunch and reflections of loss and hope | Anatole Lubovich (PFAs #211, 212, 213, 214) features | Plutonic ravishment | My brain works better when the semenal reserve is emptied | Amanda's South African lilt | Brian (Deluvios) I need 100 minds to generate critical mass / an artists habitat / my imagined nation | Greg: It's not the first time I've read at Luna's. But it is the first time I've read at Luna's high. Spot on Luke Breit (PFAs #246, 247) impression, a tinny little monologue about how bad the poetry is at Luna's (as surmised from a barstool at Simon's.)

Dove Cochrane | PFA #350

APRIL FOOL | A History of the Leisure Class (Revised)

An annual PFA tradition; the publication of a PFA that is absurd, comical or demented. This year a little pictoral at Thorstein Veblen's expense.


(cover)


(guts)

Note: It's acutally Veblen's THEORY of the Leisure Class, for the folks who might notice... (GEEKS!)