348, 349 | Debbie Kirk

Eugene Ruggles

Poems-For-All mailart stamp honoring small press poet Eugene Ruggles.

024 | Patti Smith | Revised

Cover #24 for Patti Smith's "a small entreaty" gets a make-over. An early booklet in the series, published April 2001, one month after Poems-For-All began. Some of my early design foibles can be seen in that early design below, particularly with respect to color. (What's with the slate-grey background? And the multi-colored text.) The new cover features a photograph by Gareth Owen who kindly made it available for uses like this via the wikipedia website.

Early in the Series I had a habit of "publishing-in-homage" which is code for "using someone's poem without permission." Thanks to Robert R. Byler, who maintains a Patti Smith collection of Publications at Mills College, Mrs. Smith will be sent copies of these new booklets. So she'll at least know what others are doing to her words. My hope is she'll allow me to keep making them.

April 28 | Mimeo Gathering

Mimeo Gathering? During the '60s and '70s folks used mimeo machines the same way we presently use Xerox copiers and computer printers to make chap books, zines and other small press publications. Sal Mimeo will fly from the east coast with a mimeo machine which will be in operation throughout the day making a very special limited edition commemorative chap of the event. Special things will be happening all day at the bookstore. Slip in whenever you like.

ADDED! Poet Richard Krech reads, Saturday 8pm.

Saturday's Schedule:

• 10am. Bookstore opens



• 11am. Set up of the mimeo machine begins



• Noon. Poetry Reading. While the mimeo process is underway, local poets are invited to read poems that evoke the spirit of the small press and the outsider artist. If you'd like to read during the reading, email Richard at richard@poems-for-all.com
  
  Poets reading include:
  Lob
  James Lee Jobe
  Josh Fernandez
  Crawdad Nelson (reading Kenneth Patchen)
  Kevin Jones (reading William Wantling)
  #
  


• 2pm. Ted Joans X 1,000. While some work on the mimeo, others will be outside cutting, folding, stapling in an effort to build 1,000 copies of Poems-For-All's miniature chaplette of Ted Joan's poem The Truth. Booklets built during the afternoon will be taken out and randomly distributed throughout Sacramento.



• 8pm. Evening Poetry Reading. The day will close with a reading featuring The Process Rebels Without Applause Tour of Words featuring John Dorsey, S.A. Griffin, David Smith (No, not this Dave Smith) and Scott Wannberg. Joining them at the podium will be Bill Roberts, the poet and small press impressario who heads up Bottle of Smoke Press. Also appearing this evening will be Richard Krech, a poet and publisher associated with the "mimeo revolution" of the 1960s.
  
  
  
  JOHN DORSEY currently resides in Toledo OH. He's been working in the small press since the age of 15. His work has appeared in Underground Voices, Mystery Island Magazine, The James River Poetry Review, fearless, Poems-For-All, Poesy Magazine, Spent Meat, and the Dublin Quarterly. He is the author of Little Boy Beat: Selected Poems (Paladin M & E, Inc., 2004) and the collection The Price of Sunshine co-authored with Iris Berry (Feel Free Press).
  
  
  A selection of Dorsey's poems online:
  -- my heart smelt of rotting flesh
  -- Ambient Nation: The New VietNam
  -- i like hotels
  
  
  S.A. GRIFFIN is a Los Angeles-based poet, DJ for Killradio.org and co-editor of The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, the very popular anthology awarded The Firecracker Award as best in alternative press. Named Best Performance Poet by Wanda Coleman for The LA Weekly in 1989, he has traveled extensively throughout the Western United States and Canada with Los Angeles based poetry/performance ensemble, The Carma Bums.
  
  Widely published and antholigzed as a poet, he has also written for The LA Weekly and is a contributing writer for The Underground Guide To Los Angeles, which remained on The Los Angeles Times bestseller's list for nine weeks.
  
  S.A. Griffin began Rose of Sharon Press in 1988 with the publication of "Sharktalk" by fellow Carma Bum and bad brother Doug Knott, followed in 1989 by Scott Wannberg's masterwork, "The Electric Yes Indeed!". Over the years, the Los Angeles Rose has produced many a fine poetic small press bloom.
  
  Mr. Griffin is a Dramalogue Award recipient, having played roles in films by several notable film directors, including Oliver Stone (World Trade Center), Clint Eastwood (Pale Rider), and Ivan Reitman (Twins). Notable television guest star credits include (Perry Mason), (Matlock), (Alien Nation), (Designing Women), (Melrose Place), (Las Vegas) and has appeared as Dr. Osiris in the ride film (In Search of The Obelisk) directed by Douglas Trumbull at The Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1992. Has appeared in over 150 commercials and was awarded the Kari Award Canada, as Best Actor in commercials.

RICHARD KRECH grew up in Berkeley and had his first poetry book published by d.a. levy in Cleveland, Ohio in 1966. He published a poetry magazine, The Avalanche, from 1966 to 1969 as well as several chapbooks and organized a series of poetry readings that ran for several years. In that era he had books published by the Runcible Spoon Press, Gunrunner Press, his own Undermine Press and others and in 1976 Litmus Papers published a collection, The Incompleat Works of Richard Krech. That same year he entered law school and since 1980 has been practicing criminal defense in Oakland. In 2001, after a 25+ year line break, Richard started writing poetry again and has had several small collections published. In addition to the readings he organized in Berkeley, Richard read at the Rolling Renaissance Poetry Festival in San Francisco in 1968 and has given readings locally and in New York City and Seattle, Washington.

A selection of Krech's poems online:
-- Hand to Hand Combat
-- In the moment

*

DAVID SMITH pours good strong adult beverages that make people happy and is well paid for the experience.

A selection of Smith's poems online:

-- Valium for Medusa
-- Prelude to a Scream



SCOTT WANNBERG is one of the most prolific poets alive. Words flow from him, absent of guile, rife with heart, metaphor (often having to do with great movies), and comedy. He has been a fixture at one of the last independent bookstores in L.A., Dutton's in Brentwood, for at least twenty years.

A selection of Wannberg's poems online:

-- Five Poems
-- Debutantes with broke down teeth
-- a pint of whiskey will get you through part five




Three Wise Idiots: Scott Wannberg, John Dorsey & SA Griffin Meet Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel and Harvey Keitel. "Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel is a great read, thoughtful and entertaining and ultimately life-affirming. It speaks to the wondering, wandering spirit that exists in everyone who is willing to admit that they don’t know everything but would like to at least get to know it better." --By Carlye Archibeque