to celebrate the month I'm remembering my first chapbook: Into the Sea (Abraxas Press 1969). here I am at my reading to mark its 50th anniversary. it was at the Palm Springs gallery of artist Marconi Calindas. the cake was the work of Over the Rainbow.
& here I am the other day with a print of the cover.
altho I have the documentary pages I never photographd the envelopes for this piece. so I sometimes wonder what mite be left out there in the world. when I discover someone has saved it I'm thrilld. I'm grateful to Cynthia for saving & to Jenny for bringing it back to me. & then it will all go to my collection at Kent (which was Cynthia's wish if I died before getting her files).
yesterday I had lunch with Jennifer Pramuk. she's a biologist & artist. & the daughter of a dear friend who died 2 years ago.
she found among Cynthia's "things" 2 packets with notes that they shd be given to me. & so she brought them with her.
in my long life I've been lucky to have been photographd by some of the best. I now add to the list Randall Whitehead. he flew in from San Francisco for his birthday weekend & did a quick shoot in Sunny Dunes.
sometimes writing poems
is like foot juggling
I try to remember
Lou Bogert performing
at the county fair
when I was a boy
& he was on his back
balancing balls
on soles of his feet
writing this
I see myself
on my back
legs flailing
in anticipation
of contact
with word balls
such a silly scene
seems perfect
for a poem
