Sunday, 19 August 2007

Small press icons and a Hugh Fox broadside

This past week saw anniversaries of three of the small presses' most influential icons: Charles Bukowski (born 1920), Ed Sanders (born 1939) and Jack Spicer (died 1965).  Also, today is the anniversary of the execution death of Federico Garcia Lorca.

Spicer translated some of Garcia Lorca's poems and a letter to him from Spicer on the art of translation may be found at the Spicer website at the University of Buffalo. 

Ed Sanders, a founding member of the influential folk/poetry group the Fugs, has become known in recent years for his book-length historical poems, such as 1968: A History in Verse.  There is an interesting interview  with Ed posted online by Billy Bob Hargus that's worth a look see.  One brilliant bit of short verse by him from Thirsting For Peace in a Raging Century: Selected Poems 1961-1985 follows:

Your Breath

Your breath

upon the pillow's lace

 

was like the wake

of a hummingbird's wings

 

on the wild columbine

 

And speaking of small press icons, issue #112 of Lilliput is a broadside of the work of Hugh Fox, entitled Slides.

5.

Going back to my forest

through the suburbs

that are only thirty or

forty years old but

look eternal, a white-

haired, white-bearded

man about sixty walks

out of one of the houses

he could be anyone.

9.

Driving back into the old

neighborhood a dulcimer

player on the radio, I remember

what's her name, Cow-Face,

who always came/comes on to me

like spring showers, we're both

always twenty years younger/

more beautiful than we really

are, it happens, but I can't

remember her name, keep

thinking Ludmilla Tcherina,

Babette Deutsch, Alicia

Alonso...home, dark, crickets,

the last day of moving, my head

full of names off old letters/

manuscripts/little mags/

tables of contents, the crickets

finally just crickets, the crickets,

the crickets...and the distant train.

 

As with all back issues of Lillie, this little ten slide broadside performance is available for $1.  

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