My friend Sylvain went to San Francisco recently and brought us back some souvenirs as gifts. One of the places he'd visited on his trip had been City Lights Books. He brought me a t-shirt from there. And he also brought me one of the most complicated … [read more...]
“to just start at the beginning and let the truth seep out”Grant Street, San Francisco, 2009You can quite intentionally make a Beat pilgrimage in San Francisco, soaking in the aura, the coffee, the Bohemian spirit in North Beach nooks, bars and … [read more...]
In March 2015, Jack Kerouac's masterpiece, Visions of Cody, will be reprinted by Library of America (along with Visions of Gerard and Big Sur). Edited by Todd Tietchen, the novel has been extensively annotated with notes and a number of editorial … [read more...]
“I think that having spent my life trying to hide everything from everyone, I’ve ended up by no longer being able to find many things myself. Seriously.” —Paul Bowles, 1975 The Core “Other people’s indifference is the only horror.” —Paul Bowles, … [read more...]
I read Jorge Luis Borges' This Craft of Verse in one sitting. It is a collection of six essays originally given as lectures at Harvard University in 1967-1968. The tone is easy and conversational. Borges speaks about the reader's interaction with a poem, … [Read More...]
About a week before his fortieth birthday, virgin poet Henri Frederic Amiel (1821-1881) recorded in his journal that he had “received a woman’s favors” at last. His world was not rocked. “Frankly, compared to what the imagination assumes or … [Read More...]
Asia Air Flight 8501In a high rise hotel in Surabaya, a quiet week waiting like so much of life, my wife makes miniatures of snacks in clay for jewelry ideas and I download Nordic Noir.A trip to the gym to stay the decline, then I dream more … [Read More...]
There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all. —Oscar WildeI’ve found it true in personal experience that being a target of life-threatening violence strips away everything that isn’t … [Read More...]
Drawing in ink with reed pens and brushes was how I started forty years ago. It seemed miraculous to me right from the beginning and I have never wavered in my enthusiasm for it. I happily return to it now as a compliment to the painting I do in the … [Read More...]
A collection of rare and out-of-print interviews with Gregory Corso, one of the founders of the Beat movement in American literatureArlington, MA, February 11, 2015 -- After five years of research and editing, Rick Schober, publisher at Tough … [Read More...]
Michael Guerin is the owner of the Diartspora Gallery, a private art collection focusing upon African-American art, and the art of the African diaspora. Collected over a period of over 20 years, the collection includes many pieces by self-taught and … [Read More...]
This essay is dedicated to Charles BernsteinA poem I keep coming back to again and again is Charles Reznikoff’s “During the Second World War, I Was Going Home One Night,”1 first published in 1969. I first encountered the poem from hearing it in … [Read More...]
An Old Man's Winter Night by Robert FrostAll out-of-doors looked darkly in at him Through the thin frost, almost in separate stars, That gathers on the pane in empty rooms. What kept his eyes from giving back the gaze Was the lamp tilted near … [Read More...]
