My friend Connie was a poet, we were at community college together. She used to go to open mikes in San Francisco with Micheline. And I saw him read with Allen Ginsburg at the SF Poetry Fest, the weekend before the 1989 earthquake. Fun times.
Jack Micheline, as Erik says in his intro, 'carved out his own field in the underground where real art lives'. The ensuing poem by A. D. Winans seems quite a fitting tribute to him, particularly the opening lines:
'He was the high note of a wailing saxophone
The spark that ignites a fire'
How badly we need such visionary poets - such visionary underground outlaws - right now!
Thank you but I didn't ask you to do anything. That's an automated response from "Buy me a coffee." Anyways, IG and threads are horrible. I'll continue to use X. It's the best platform out there.
Erik, can you explain what makes X the best platform and threads and IG terrible? I don’t use any of them but for an occasional photo post on IG. I think they are all feeders of our current malaise.
X has the most brilliant people alive using it. Great journalists, writers, philosophers, and witty people in general. It's a great forum for free speech. Substack is great too. IG and FB pale in comparison when it comes to substance and freedom of speech. Much of my philosophical and literary content I post on FB or IG has been taken down for going against "community standards." They've become a soft, sterile, ad-ridden wasteland. But IG is still a good platform if you're a photographer.
I saw/heard Jack Micheline read his poem, 'Wacky Dacky Doo' back in the '90s in San Francisco. I'm not sure that's the correct name of the piece, but his performance made an indelible impression on me. His rumpled appearance and manner of standing hunched to one side as he spoke was not unlike Peter Falk's classic television character, Columbo. I can still see him twirling his finger and punching the air upwards as he repeatedly intoned, "Wacky doo, wacky doo...". There may not have even been any intelligible words, just weird and wired utterances like a jazz riff...
“Like a hummingbird drunk on the pollen of life” - a line so compact with imagery (constant movement, speed, intensity, euphoria) that only someone near to this level could have written it.
Micheline had a huge influence on the SF poets of my generation & beyond. The poems that made us love him are in this collection from Zeitgeist Press, edited by William Taylor Jr. https://www.zeitgeist-press.com/index.php/product-category/authors/jack-micheline/
My friend Connie was a poet, we were at community college together. She used to go to open mikes in San Francisco with Micheline. And I saw him read with Allen Ginsburg at the SF Poetry Fest, the weekend before the 1989 earthquake. Fun times.
Jack Micheline, as Erik says in his intro, 'carved out his own field in the underground where real art lives'. The ensuing poem by A. D. Winans seems quite a fitting tribute to him, particularly the opening lines:
'He was the high note of a wailing saxophone
The spark that ignites a fire'
How badly we need such visionary poets - such visionary underground outlaws - right now!
No matter how many times you close the book, you're still reading Micheline. His words take time to fade. Thank you.
I just bought you a cup of coffee and you asked me to tweet that. Please stop using X. I use Threads. There are others available.
Thank you but I didn't ask you to do anything. That's an automated response from "Buy me a coffee." Anyways, IG and threads are horrible. I'll continue to use X. It's the best platform out there.
Erik, can you explain what makes X the best platform and threads and IG terrible? I don’t use any of them but for an occasional photo post on IG. I think they are all feeders of our current malaise.
X has the most brilliant people alive using it. Great journalists, writers, philosophers, and witty people in general. It's a great forum for free speech. Substack is great too. IG and FB pale in comparison when it comes to substance and freedom of speech. Much of my philosophical and literary content I post on FB or IG has been taken down for going against "community standards." They've become a soft, sterile, ad-ridden wasteland. But IG is still a good platform if you're a photographer.
I saw/heard Jack Micheline read his poem, 'Wacky Dacky Doo' back in the '90s in San Francisco. I'm not sure that's the correct name of the piece, but his performance made an indelible impression on me. His rumpled appearance and manner of standing hunched to one side as he spoke was not unlike Peter Falk's classic television character, Columbo. I can still see him twirling his finger and punching the air upwards as he repeatedly intoned, "Wacky doo, wacky doo...". There may not have even been any intelligible words, just weird and wired utterances like a jazz riff...
Thank you for this, thank you for honoring Jack!
!!!!!
“Like a hummingbird drunk on the pollen of life” - a line so compact with imagery (constant movement, speed, intensity, euphoria) that only someone near to this level could have written it.