Each month I attend a poetry reading at Zed's Cafe in Silver Spring, MD. Reuben Jackson, poet, jazz scholar, educator, and archivist, was the featured speaker on October 4th and, before he had … [Read more...]
My Coleridge: On Five Poems by Sara Coleridge
‘Passion is blind not love: her wondrous might’ Passion is blind not Love: her wondrous might Informs with three-fold pow’r man’s inward sight: – To her deep glance the soul at large … [Read more...]
Poetry as a Last Letter: Thomas James and his Influences Sylvia Plath and Georg Trakl
Buried in Joliet, Illinois, lies Thomas Edward Bojeski. He died young at the age of twenty-seven on January 7, 1974. The public and his family disagree on the cause. One says murder. The other says … [Read more...]
Richard’s Coat: Remembering Richard Irwin
Richard’s Coat… went into the cardboard box with all the other things for the thrift store: an orange radio with a broken antenna, a vintage purse that was only in fashion in San Francisco’s … [Read more...]
An interview with Richard Kigel, author of Heav’nly Tidings From the Afric Muse: The Grace and Genius of Phillis Wheatley
Richard Kigel is a historian and educator with an interest in 18th and 19th-century American history. His first book, Becoming Abraham Lincoln: The Coming of Age of Our Greatest President, recounts … [Read more...]
Secret of the Masters: An Interview with Poet Edward Field
This interview was conducted in September 2016 and first published, along with the poem "Secret of the Masters," the next month in the now-defunct Eris Magazine. The poem "Doggy Love" is published … [Read more...]
Remembering Federico García Lorca
Ask for lights and bells. / Learn to cross your hands, / to taste the cold air / of metals and of cliffs. A Spanish poet and playwright associated with avant-garde surrealism, Federico García Lorca … [Read more...]
A.D. Winans Remembers Bob Kaufman
Bob Kaufman, known in France as the American Rimbaud, was one of the original Beat poets to come out of the Fifties. He is rightfully regarded as one of the most influential black poets of his era, … [Read more...]
Remembering poet David Gitin
It is with a numbed sense of great personal loss that I report the passing on June 27th of David Gitin: poet, educator, and polymath. As Gloria Avner lovingly phrased it (his long-lost teenage … [Read more...]
Remembering Ronnie Burk
Ronnie Burk, poet and activist, Surrealist and Buddhist, would have been 60 today on April 1, 2015! Celebrate him with a remembrance post at ACT UP Archives filled with photos and collages. Feel free … [Read more...]
Yannis Livadas: A double interview
These interviews were conducted for Quorum Magazine, which is based in Croatia. This is their first appearance in English. Interview No. 1 Tomica Bajsic interviewed the poet Yannis Livadas for … [Read more...]
For David Moe
Like a crow caws into the night, like an owl with its questioning eyes, like a Shaman lights the night with magic words, like a hawk circles the sky, like a farmer plants seeds, like a … [Read more...]
In honor of ruth weiss on her 85th birthday
The following is from: “ruth weiss and the American Beat movement of the ‘50s and 60’s” by Horst Spandler, published in: ruth weiss, no dancing aloud – lautes tanzen nicht erlaubt. edition exil, … [Read more...]
Remembering Poet Kirby Doyle
Kirby Doyle & the Snows of Yesteryear by Michael McClure In 1958 Kirby Doyle's menage on Sacramento Street, in a basement apartment of the no-man's land between the wealthy on the Hill and the … [Read more...]
A.D. Winans on A.D. Winans
I was born in San Francisco, and have lived here almost my entire life. I was born at home, premature. My mother said the doctor told her I would not live a long life. Now I'm 71 and the doctor is … [Read more...]
Remembering poet Lawrence McGaugh
Bay Area poet Lawrence McGaugh (October 11, 1940-July 26, 2006) was the author of "A Fifth Sunday" and several other volumes of poetry. His work was also published in literary periodicals and … [Read more...]
Remembering poet Howard Hart
SOME LINES FOR YOUWRITTEN UNDER A REDWOOD IN THE CITY PARKNOT YET THREE MONTHS SINCE YOU DIED IN MY ARMSIN OUR HOME ON CHESTNUT STREET, SAN FRANCISCO Drawn to the Temple where you worshipped I slink … [Read more...]
A. D. Winans Looks Back at the Beat Generation
Generally speaking, counter-culture describes the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group or subculture in conflict with those of the cultural mainstream of the day, a visible phenomenon that … [Read more...]
A.D. Winans Remembers Jack Micheline
Jack Micheline, a poet of the Beat Generation, died of a heart attack on Friday, February 27, 1988 aboard a Bart commuter train. The transit police at the Orinda Bart station discovered his body, … [Read more...]
In Memory of Poet Alan Ansen: Biography, Books & Links
Alan Ansen passed away in Athens, Grece on November 12, 2006. A poet, playwright, and author, he was associated with both the Beat Generation & New York poets. Ansen served as secretary to W.H. … [Read more...]