Thank You, Anne Waldman...

for compiling and editing this awesome anthology I hold in my grubby little paws right now, Out of This World. This is an "Anthology of the St. Mark's Poetry Project" which covers the years 1966-1991.

For anyone who reveres the experimental tradition in AmPo, this is a must have book. I would place it in my list of Top Twenty American Poetry Anthologies of All Time.

The twenty-five years surveyed include some of the liveliest poets of the first generation of the New York School, but also some of the most interesting poets of subsequent generations of that venerable, non-existent institution.

And of course there are Beats and language poets and alternative music gods and goddesses and rock stars and the blessed non-classifiables &...&...&...

And because it's New York, there are some walloping surprises.

I think the best thing about this anthology is all the people you didn't expect to see in here, the marginal geniuses, the beloved kooks, the casual completely un-self-aware shamans...

When I first entered the church itself on one of my rare trips to New York, I felt such a sense of reverence.

It truly is holy ground.

I opened a door on the second floor I shouldn't have (even though a sign warned me lol) to see John Yau teaching a class.

I knew there was something good behind that door.

Nobody yelled at me so I was happy.

If they had, I would have just turned into a sparrow. I'm able to do that.

A poetry sparrow.

Or make myself invisible. That's another one of my tricks. I learn these things from television.

After the class, John Yau clued my friends and me into the fact that there was a Richard Tuttle show at the New York Public library.

So it was total serendipity.

Of course, all the huge names are here in this anthology. But let me tell you some people in this massive (over 600 pages of poetry!) anthology you probably wouldn't expect to see in here, whose works will delight you...Helen Adam, Ray Bremser, Edwin Denby, Jim Dine (!), Hilda Morley, Vito Acconci, Kathy Acker, Jim Brodey, Steve Carey, Andrei Codrescu, Jonathan Cott, Mary Ferrari, Dick Gallup, John Godfrey, Tuli Kupferberg, Lou Reed, Rene Ricard, Sonia Sanchez, Sam Shepard, Patti Smith, Janine Pommy Vega, Antler, Barbara Barg, Reed Bye, Dennis Cooper, Tim Dlugos, Ed Friedman, Merrill Gillfilan, Brad Gooch, Kimiko Hahn, Richard Hell, Bob Holman, Vincent Katz (!), (Glass librettist) Christopher Knowles, Michael Lally, Rose Lesniak, Ann Lauterbach, Kimberly Lyons, Steve Malmude, Dougls Messerli, Honor Moore, Cookie Mueller, Elinor Nauen, Susan Noel, Kit Robinson, Elio Schneeman, Paul Schneeman, James Sherry, Lynne Tilman, David Trinidad, Marjorie Welish, Jeff Wright, Barry Yourgrau and hundreds more...


I'll share just a few of the memorable poems in here that were really wowing me tonight...

Here's one of Alice Notley's postcard poems; a bunch more are included...


          Feb. 18

Dear Fuckface,
       Everyone thinks you're
the Goddess of Compassion
but I know you also have
piles & a scarcely controlled
urge to sing for a living.
So much for you. Here
everything is stupid as I
have a dwindling flu
which necessitates my
finally paying attention to
my dwindling pocketbook.
How about some bucks,
Goddess Baby? any amount
above five I'd appreciate &
continue to light at your
altar the incense I steal
from the neo-Rocky Mountain
healthfood store. I
still like you either way,
     Love,
        Bubbles



And this very funny diatribe from Tuli Kupferberg hits too close to home for present-day America...definitely the perfect poem for the outgoing regime...I guess this was written around the time of Iran Contra and is referencing Nicaragua (and Grenada too?)....

This is a brilliant poem. This should be reanthologized to get it into the American canon....

"Well 1, 2, 3 Vietnams"...spooky....


   If you Want to be President
   (To the tune of: "If you Want to be Married/Lead a Happy Life...")


If you want to be President
A very long while
Be sure you invade
A very small isle.

For if it is tiny
And its soldiers are few
They'll never make
A fool out of you.

You may kill with impunity
Kill for a lark
If the color of your victims
Is rather dark.

And all of the Americans
Will love you too
If the total dead Americans
Is rather few.

But when the numbers mount up
As they did in Vietnam
Then you could be
In a bad political jam.

So invade the tiny island
Where the soldiers are naive
And leave Nicaragua
To the mercenaries.

And always kill people
For their own good
Ban meetings, censor papers
For Libertyhood.

You can always find a puppet
Speaks a civil tongue
Appointed by a Queen
Who was appointed very young.

Postpone the elections
That you said you sought
For what if the results
Are not what they ought?

Protect all Americans
Kill a lesser breed
It's the black man's burden
It's the blood lust that you feed.

And after you've refused
The help that could have saved 'em
Be very very generous
The while you re-enslave 'em.

It's not if you win or lose
It's how you play the game
And if the whole world goes down
At least you've killed all the same.

Old soldiers never die
They only kill
The movie stars with general's bars
They fill the corporate till.

They bring jobs and co-prosperity
Throughout the Northern Regions
And the number that enjoy all this
Is unfortunately legion.

O someone else's suffering
Is int'resting to see
You can watch it every night
On CBS or NBC.

And while you are dining
Always recollect
It's not you or your son dying
But only gookish dreck.

When you got two million men
Under their arms
How long can you keep them
Down on Nancy's farm?

You know well everybody
Likes a good killin'
And testin' new weapon-toys
Well, isn't that thrillin'?

Tho we can only have
One nuclear war
Well 1, 2, 3 Vietnams
We can have even more

So if you want to be President
A very long while
Be sure you invade
A tiny, tiny isle...

For if it is small enough
And its soldier very few
I can never make
A fool out of you...
       (I think)



And Christopher Knowles is a legend by now. Many of his lyrics for Einstein on the Beach come back to me on a regular basis.

Remember when he gives Carole King the Burroughs treatment in that libretto? And then adds plucked lines coming from d.j.'s on local airwaves.

Spookily perfect for Glass's music.

I think Knowles inherited the Stein gene.

Look what he does with the lyrics of Barry Manilow's wistful shlock-fest "Mandy" (did you know this song was actually written for a DOG?? True fact! After all, what human being would come and "give without taking?" Get real!)


      Mandy

I remember all my life. Raining down as cold as I am. Shadows on the hills.
Faces through windows. Crying in the night. It was just another.
It was a foll, it was a fool, it could be alright now perhaps.
I can't be making myself of your bat.
Oh Mandy you gave me and you gave that keeps shaking I need it.
I remember all my life. Raining down as cold I am. Shadows on the hills.
Faces through windows. Crying in the night. It was just another.
It was a foll, it was a fool, it could be alright now perhaps.
I can't be making myself of your bat.
Oh Mandy you gave me and you gave that keeps shaking I need it.
Yesterday I was gone to make it.
Oh Mandy you gave me and you gave that keeps shaking I need it.
Oh Mandy you gave me and you gave that keeps shaking I need it it it.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh