11-19-2023, 11:22 AM
(This post was last modified: 11-27-2023, 03:40 AM by TranquillityBase.)
I got the d a levy book a few days ago. It starts out with his "concrete poetry" which is as far as I've gotten. He may have been a charlatan or a genius or maybe a little of both. I'd have to study the history of concrete poetry to have any real idea where he stands but I'm not sure I want to spend the time on that. I wish I could scan and post an example. Maybe I can. He didn't believe in copyright.
It's call Zen & Concrete Etc., edited by Ingrid Swanberg.
Anyway, looking forward to his "lexical" poems, as they call the more traditional poems that he wrote.
When I was in my first "poetry workshop" in college, there was a flamboyantly gay fellow. He mostly seemed obnoxious and narcissistic, but he had an uncanny ability to "see" what I had been thinking about when writing a particular poem. For example, I wrote a poem about Picssao's Guernica, never mentioning Picasso or Guernica, and he spotted it. He did the same trick with another poem of mine.
When Allen Ginsberg read at our college, this guy managed to worm his way into the after reading party (unless he was making it all up, which I suppose is a possibility.). Anyway, 20 years later I went to another Ginsberg reading, and there he was, in a suit and tie and with a child. After the reading he was unsuccessfully trying to gain a private audience with AG, but failing. A telepath, but also a charlatan.
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Got to the beginning of his regular poems. "Cleveland Undercovers" is sort of a Cleveland version of Howl. I think someone who knew Cleveland in the early 60s would probably get more out of it, but there was plenty there to keep a know nothing like me reading. I briefly considered trying to Google the Cleveland references; maybe someday. But I don't think it's that important, to figure out every unknown reference that is. I think I can post at least some excerpts in the name of research and study and still be obeying Copyright. Stay tuned.
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I finished Zen & Concrete last night. I'm glad I discovered him (thanks to you and the Outlaw Bible). I won't soon forget his poems. Cleveland was his House of Usher. For whatever reasons, he felt complelled to entrench himself there and fight an impossible battle against a mostly indifferent public, except for the local morality police and their servants, the real police (there's a section of afterwords by people that knew him, including a description of his obscenity trials and tribulations).
Just found this article, a good summation of his life and times in Cleveland:
https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle...f-d-a-levy
And this, an amazing collection of a levy publications mentioned in the above article, digitally scanned:
https://clevelandmemory.contentdm.oclc.o...m/d.a.levy
I suspect I'll be spending a lot of time at the above site.
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d a levy's spontaneous bibliography, p. 1https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uq1639r...sp=sharing
d a levy's spontaneous bibliogrphy, p. 2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/17IuJlq7...sp=sharing
***********************
A concrete poem from one of Levy's magazines by b p nicell: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11mN1-u4...sp=sharing
It's call Zen & Concrete Etc., edited by Ingrid Swanberg.
Anyway, looking forward to his "lexical" poems, as they call the more traditional poems that he wrote.
When I was in my first "poetry workshop" in college, there was a flamboyantly gay fellow. He mostly seemed obnoxious and narcissistic, but he had an uncanny ability to "see" what I had been thinking about when writing a particular poem. For example, I wrote a poem about Picssao's Guernica, never mentioning Picasso or Guernica, and he spotted it. He did the same trick with another poem of mine.
When Allen Ginsberg read at our college, this guy managed to worm his way into the after reading party (unless he was making it all up, which I suppose is a possibility.). Anyway, 20 years later I went to another Ginsberg reading, and there he was, in a suit and tie and with a child. After the reading he was unsuccessfully trying to gain a private audience with AG, but failing. A telepath, but also a charlatan.
************
Got to the beginning of his regular poems. "Cleveland Undercovers" is sort of a Cleveland version of Howl. I think someone who knew Cleveland in the early 60s would probably get more out of it, but there was plenty there to keep a know nothing like me reading. I briefly considered trying to Google the Cleveland references; maybe someday. But I don't think it's that important, to figure out every unknown reference that is. I think I can post at least some excerpts in the name of research and study and still be obeying Copyright. Stay tuned.
************
I finished Zen & Concrete last night. I'm glad I discovered him (thanks to you and the Outlaw Bible). I won't soon forget his poems. Cleveland was his House of Usher. For whatever reasons, he felt complelled to entrench himself there and fight an impossible battle against a mostly indifferent public, except for the local morality police and their servants, the real police (there's a section of afterwords by people that knew him, including a description of his obscenity trials and tribulations).
Just found this article, a good summation of his life and times in Cleveland:
https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle...f-d-a-levy
And this, an amazing collection of a levy publications mentioned in the above article, digitally scanned:
https://clevelandmemory.contentdm.oclc.o...m/d.a.levy
I suspect I'll be spending a lot of time at the above site.
***********************
d a levy's spontaneous bibliography, p. 1https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Uq1639r...sp=sharing
d a levy's spontaneous bibliogrphy, p. 2 https://drive.google.com/file/d/17IuJlq7...sp=sharing
***********************
A concrete poem from one of Levy's magazines by b p nicell: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11mN1-u4...sp=sharing