What I meant was that To Ask For Love moved me more than any book of love poems I've ever read.
I always said 'poetry saved my life' and what i meant was when i was at my most despondent, reading a poem that I connect with in the often mysterious ways creative arts can personally reach into us, would transform my deep disappointment (with the world or myself) into deep gratitude for that connection.
I rarely get despondent any more, but if i were to be, this new favorite book of mine would be a lifesaver, just for the beauty of the language. Every word seems necessary in the ways only words can. I highly recommend (though everyone's taste is their own) Doireann Ni Ghriofa's A GHOST IN THE THROAT.
[I'll only be there on video, and my reading includes graphic sex so be forewarned]
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SAY IT AGAIN An Autobiography In Sonnets, my latest book, came out this year, 2024, and now the year is half over and as far ss I know there haven't been any reviews or even mentions in publications that pay any attention to poetry. But there have been (as pointed out by friends) some amazing reviews on Amazon, for which I am totally grateful.
This book is the result of decades of work and according to some readers is as easy to read as watching a movie. In this case a documentary about how the impact of music, poetry, art, culture, politics, and life experience changed a working-class ethnic wannabe tough guy into an anti-war, civil rights, feminist gay liberation activist.
If you haven't read it yet, give it a shot. If you have and you enjoyed it, spread the word however you can. Not just for me, but for Beltway Editions, the small press that published it (and may then publish the sequels in the future). And for all the creative souls that pour their hearts and hard work into something hopefully meaningful.
Two singer/songwriter albums released in 2023 that I had some connection to: Peter Case's DOCTOR MOAN, and Billy Keane's OH, THESE DAYS. Peter, longtime dear friend, included an adaptation of a poem of mine ("Give Me Five Minutes More" the title from a very different popular song in my 1940s boyhood) on his lp. While Billy, friend of my oldest son and my housemate and caretaker Miles (with his partner Hannah Bracken) had Miles playing bass on every song on his record. Well worth checking out.
When I first saw this film a few years ago I dug it, with some reservations. But watching it this holiday season, I was totally won over, so much so that it is, for now, my favorite Christmas movie. I teared up, I laughed out loud, I felt overwhelmed with love and melancholy together. And had some profound revelations. Not bad for a small flick with an entirely George Michael soundtrack.
A new addition to my all-time favorite books list. The title page says it's "a memoir in poems, stories & fragments" but it could easily say "a memoir in poems and poetic prose." It flows so naturally it was more like the book was reading me than vice versa. Fascinating, poignant, funny, at times, breathtakingly honest, totally engaging, and literally charming.
And yes the author is a longtime dear friend, and I'm briefly mentioned in a list of LA poets, but anyone who knows me knows I don't hesitate to criticize my friends' work if I feel it's deserved. Not NOW I AM A MISSING PERSON. Read it and see for yourself.
In this beautiful book poet and art critic (and friend) John Yau has put together a wide selection of Joe Brainard's artwork and written a great argument for why Brainard should be seen as a major and seminal artist (full disclosure: Joe and I were periodic lovers for several years), and not marginalized as too "gay" or "decorative" or "not serious" or "comic" or "pornographic" etc. As Yau writes: "What shines through in everything that Brainard did is a melding of genius and generosity that has rarely if ever been seen in art before or since." Find out why Joe's work is so beloved by so many discerning creators of art and poetry, buy this book.
It took me only a few days to read this memoir/biography/critique, its prose is so inviting. But also because I was a friend of the author's father (the recently deceased poet/art critic Peter Schjeldahl) and Frank O'Hara's life and poetry had a big impact on my life and poetry. And though I never met O'Hara, I know almost everyone else mentioned in this book, some of whom I consider dear friends, and a couple of whom were lovers. [I'm briefly mentioned in the book as well, and a poetry anthology I edited in the 1970s—None Of The Above—is listed in the bibliography.]
When me and my poetry started getting some attention in the early 1970s, several of O'Hara's friends, starting with John Ashbery, said I reminded them of "Frank," and after I moved back to NYC in 1975 O'Hara's sister Maureen asked me to write a biography of her brother, because she felt I got him and his work the way she wanted someone to. Like her brother I was an Irish-American Catholic (at least raised), military veteran, poet/critic (at the time I was a book reviewer for The Washington Post and Village Voice), lover of men (as well as women), pianist (like Frank I started as a boy playing and performing classical music), and more.
But being a single parent to a five-year-old and busy with my own writing projects, I turned her offer down, We remained friends with her often explaining her reluctance to give others the rights to her brother's writing, which is part of what this book is about. I found her protective of Frank's work and legacy but not totally unreasonably (e.g. she agreed to allow Frank's poems to be used in a stage play made up of poems by poets in downtown Manhattan in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s called The Rhythm Of Torn Stars, which included a poem of mine).
In my experience each of us has a personal perspective when it comes to reality, especially the past. Part of the pleasure of encountering others' takes on shared history is being invited in to their perspective. I agree with many of Calhoun's assessments of some people and events, but some not. Her struggle to understand and articulate her experiences with her father including his unfinished commissioned, and then blocked, biography of O'Hara is a unique reading experience. I obviously found it hard to put down.
This is what Peter looked like when poet Ted Berrigan introduced us in the 1960s. We became instant, if wary, friends. Hearing Peter read his "Paris Sonnets" back then inspired me to transform an autobiographical piece I'd been working on for years into "The South Orange Sonnets" with the attitude of working-class New Jersey trumping the Paris I had yet to encounter.
In the early 1970s I was teaching at a college in DC and taking the train often to NYC for poetry readings and other events and would usually have lunch with Peter and then make the rounds of the galleries where he'd deliver mini-lectures on the art there, turning me on to some of my favorite artists, like Eva Hesse. In the late '70s and early '80s when I lived in Manhattan, we'd see each other at events and occasionally get together and the same after I moved to LA and he'd be visiting and, for a while, even living there.
By the time I moved back to Jersey at the turn of the century we weren't in touch as much but I was always delighted to see him at various events and always let him know how much I enjoyed his weekly art reviews in The NewYorker. Reading them was for me like a visit form him. He was a terrific poet and one of the great prose stylists of our time, always worth reading even when you don't agree with him. Rest in Poetry (and poetic prose) Peter. And condolences to his wife, Brooke, and daughter, Ada.
Maybe you have to be as intensely compulsive as I am to read a 770-page biography (not counting endnotes etc.) that's an updated and expanded version of an earlier edition that was already a huge book when you read that version decades ago, but I binged read this with enthusiastic joy despite the tragic figure it depicts in more detail and critical appraisal than any other book about Kerouac.
As I say in my blurb for this book, it's "the definitive text" and it is. I may not always agree with Nicosia's critical assessment of each of Kerouac's books (though I mostly do) but I appreciate the thoroughness of his coverage of the writing of each and the life experiences of Kerouac at the time of their creation. If you're like me in digging the details of the creative processes of people whose work you find compelling, then buy this book and settle in for the ride.
[full disclosure: Gerry and I have become friends since I read the first version of this book, and I recommend starting with the prelude on page 55 and going back to the earlier prefaces later]
STAY ON BOARD: The Leo Baker Story is the most moving, engaging, enlightening, and satisfying film I've seen in a long time, and my new favorite. It's a documentary about a champion skateboarder's struggle with identity in the face of financial, social, and survival pressures to conform to preconceived ideas of gender expression.
Highly recommend. (Full disclosure, I have friends who were interviewed for the film.)
RESERVATION DOGS is back for a second season. YAY! for a show that should get a mess of Emmys but aren't nominated for any I hear. "Skoden" anyway.
I don't know how those without an interest in Ireland and the Irish will respond to O'Toole's book, but for those who are into the ongoing story of the Irish at home and abroad, this is quite a successful feat of tying a lot of historic currents and upheavals into an impressive and informative document worth reading.
Joel Kim Booster wrote, produced, and stars in this loose adaptation of Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE update to the 21st Century and set in the summer vacation getaway, especially for gay men, FIRE ISLAND. Directed by Andre Ahnm and co-starring Bowen Yang and Margaret Cho, it's worth seeing just for the fact it's a Hollywood style rom-com that stars Asian-Americans who happen to be gay (a first as far as I know), let alone that it's at times uncontrollable laughter inducing.
It's mostly light but has enough serious issues depth to anchor it to present realities (pre-covid though) and give us a reason to switch allegiances as in the Austen version (Conrad Ricamore as the Mister Darcey reincarnation is excellent, as is the entire cast). Perfect summer fun movie, though with much more sex than the usual Hollywood hetero norm fare (fair warning). Hope it's successful enough to pave the way for more trailblazing movies like this one.
A book I highly recommend which is also appropriate for Women's History Month because Sharon Stone is definitely a seminal figure in US film and cultural, and even political, history (and, full disclosure, a friend for over forty years). This is very much the story of a woman standing up to the challenges of a lifetime of being underestimated because of her gender and more.
THE BEAUTY OF LIVING TWICE is as bluntly authentic and brilliantly insightful a memoir as you might expect from someone who has never been afraid to tell the truth as she sees it and has experienced it. And always with disarming wit and intellect. It immediately engaged me so thoroughly I read it in one day, couldn't put it down. And it's also appropriate for a belated Saint Paddy's Day tribute, as she is a descendant of the Irish diaspora and makes clear how much her Irish-American heritage has influenced her.
Back in the early 20th Century there was a lot of talk in the literary world about "The Great American Novel." Some thought it had already been written in the previous century (e.g. Moby Dick) or claimed newer titles (e.g. The Great Gatsby) or midcentury (e.g. Invisible Man) or later ones (e.g. Beloved). In this century it seems like the absurd game it always was and who cares anyway.
But if we were still playing, I'd throw Dale Herd's Dreamland Court into the mix along with the examples cited above and others. A series of mostly overlapping monologues by a varied crew of smalltime drug dealers and thieves and general fuckups and their partners and lovers and spouses and friends, Dreamland Court may not sound inviting, but once you've met them and been drawn into their stories by Herd's original styling and eye and ear for character, you're hooked,
Reading Dreamland Court is like watching one of those streaming series that you can't help binging on because you want to see what happens to these uniquely distinct individuals that you've come to know so intimately. Someone once wrote about Hubert Selby's achievement in his novel Last Exit To Brooklyn being that he got readers to care about the "lowlifes" he was writing about. In Dreamland Court the characters themselves seem to write themselves and their stories into existence, and so authentically they continue to live in my consciousness long after I reached the end of the book, which I was sorry to.
