26 Comments
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Bruce Isaacson's avatar

Thank you for featuring him. The books he did by Jack Micheline had an especially big impact on me. His publications were the original venues for Bukowski’s best prose. There is no chance that Winans contributions will be lost to literary history. So glad to see him out there.

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Bruce Isaacson's avatar

A.D. Winans is a national treasure. Second Coming Press was a model for Zeitgeist Press, which has occupied 40 years of my life. He showed us all how to get out there and make books happen.

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Stephen Johnson's avatar

When propaganda meets verity it loses its power

The only action left is violence

In the minds of the propagandists

They tried to control you with lies

All that is left is to beat you into submission

When their hammer meets the anvil

No matter the blows

The hammer breaks

Before the anvil

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Howie Lisnoff's avatar

Reminiscent of Rexroth.

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Roman S Shapoval's avatar

Sorry, but who is Rexroth?

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Howie Lisnoff's avatar

Kenneth Rexroth, categorized as a Beat Poet, and one who denied it.

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Bruce Isaacson's avatar

Kenneth Rexroth was known as a poet perhaps best for Thou Shalt Not Kill, an elegy for Dylan Thomas and model for Howl. His book American Poetry in the 20th Century is the best history in the art form available. Rexroth was an anarchist radical who traveled the nation in the ’30s and settled in SF to father the Beat and Berkeley poetry renaissances. He was 100% auto-didact and had a photographic memory. He is one of the most profound minds America produced.

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Roman S Shapoval's avatar

Ah ok thank you for that.

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Bram E. Gieben's avatar

Identity "politics" killed political poetry.

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Poetic Outlaws's avatar

Indeed.

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Bram E. Gieben's avatar

I'd be prepared to speak about this, if you're interested. In the 2010s I had three successful Edinburgh Fringe shows, toured widely, published a collection, performed at the Edinburgh Book Festival, and ran events. I was the Scottish Slam Champion in 2015, placed in top 10 in the world champs, then had my career ruined over a stupid online beef. I've never worked in spoken word since then. My work was expressly political.

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Taylor Bruce's avatar

I don't entirely agree but always enjoy an AD Winan's poem. He is an honored senior poet like Edward Field in NYC. We have exchanged a few letters over the years. Will check to see if he has a FB page. Thanks for publishing.

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williamphaynes/elliott's avatar

A.D. Winans is a name I haven't encountered since I left the small press scene back in the nineties. It's good to hear from you and I'm glad your well. I was never a p0litical poet and still don't know where I fit in but I still write and publish my poems. My latest book is BEAT, WRITINGS & RAMBLINGS available at amazon.com

My name is William P Haynes JR and I am a poet

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Anarchist Therapy's avatar

They're rising up slowly but surely.

"You Can't Scapegoat Your Way Out of the Truth"

https://open.spotify.com/track/0rtZdHXLk6uknKol2niai3?si=6da44e2150964b29

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Christopher D. Sims's avatar

Very well-written, and comes at a great time as our democracy has holes shot in it daily. When I was writing poems in the late 90s and early 2000s, I felt surrounded by political poets and poetry. Not as much anymore.

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Tesstamona's avatar

I am one of them.

Yet I see the point he makes and think it applies to nearly everyone today.

We’ve gone far down the subversion scale as a species.

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Larry's avatar

I am one of them

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Sloan Bashinsky's avatar

I dunno,

82+

I can’t relate to Winan’s landscape,

but I plainly see America’s

gone deep into the shitter

Today, leaving the inner city parking deck

of where my chiropractor works,

the toll booth operator was not there,

Juneteenth,

I was told by the emergency operator,

I said I had really been behind Juneteenth,

but I wasn’t happy for this hassle.

Dang if I can wrap my mind,

or any other part of me,

around any black American soldier

saluting  FDT,

wanting to fight for a white draft dodger president,

or for any white president,

or for any black president,

in a white American men’s war for corporate profit,

what's the difference between that

and picking rich white men’s cotton?

I look at photos online of FDT rallies,

the Charlottesville Confederate monument removal protest,

the Jan 6 failed coup attempt,

I see heaps of white faces,

I see the South be done rose again,

I smell white hooded sheets,

I see swastikas,

I see confederate flags-FDT.

I got a dear friend lying in a hospital

recovering from 7 hours of surgery

to repair jaw, teeth and skull damage

from the second assassination attempt

because of his political activism,

He belongs to no political party.

My lady and I didn’t know until yesterday evening

that he survived the surgery involving 3 different surgeons.

His surgeries after the first assassination attempt were just as rugged.

FDT made America a great danger for people like our best friend,

who is a real American patriot.

As are my lady and me,

Yeah, we are white folks.

We live in MAGA country,

spend time in nature,

and mingle with people in real and cyber time.

Compared to FDT,  

our best friend is moral, honest and tough,

pays his bills,

was raised on a farm and farms today,

is super smart and well schooled

book educated,

a master mechanic, welder, carpenter, plumber, electrician,

computer and tech savvy.

taught economics at several colleges, a terrific detective,

has friends who have friends

I donna want to mess with,

there doesn’t seem to be anything

he can’t figure out how to do,

I’d say he is savant,

has been and continues to be fire-tested,

has put his life at risk many times

for his community, God and country,

is steered and corrected ongoing by angels

known in the Bible-

he would be a far better president

than Lyndon Johnson forward,

But he would take the job,

unless angels made him do it

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Fitz's avatar

🤟

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K Michael Wiley's avatar

IM RIGJT HERKDIVJVOVC

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