Empathy, Curiosity and the Ecstasy of Discovery in the Poetry of David Meltzer

Show description for Sunday 7/24/2011 @ 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Our guest this afternoon, on the the 5 o'clock hour, is poet David Meltzer, talking about his most recent book, When I Was A Poet, new from City Lights. Born in 1937, David Meltzer is a poet associated with both the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. He was also included in Don Allen's seminal anthology, The New American Poetry. A child prodigy, Meltzer performed on the radio and TV in New York beginning in the late '40s. In 1957, after a few years in Los Angeles, where he was a part of the circle around Wallace Berman's Semina magazine, Meltzer moved to San Francisco, where he associated with such poets as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Spicer. One of the pioneers of jazz poetry readings, Meltzer formed a psychedelic folk-rock group, Serpent Power, with his late wife Tina and poet Clark Coolidge, recording for Vanguard records in the late '60's. He continues to perform with the music and poetry review, Rockpile. In addition to his many books of poetry, Meltzer published 10 erotic novels in the late '60s and early '70s, including the critically acclaimed Agency Trilogy, revisiting the genre in 1995 with Under. He has edited many anthologies, including San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets (City Lights, 2001).

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	Sonny Rollins featuring Thelonious Monk

The Ecstatic Embrace of David Meltzer, Poet

New Day Jazz Justin Desmangles Jazz music for lovers and the lonely. Genre Jazz Miss the Show? MP3 Stream (128kbps, broadband) MP3 Stream (32kbps, dial-up) PLAY LIST BELOW Also, please see earlier entries by clicking on the words, David Meltzer, among the labels for this post.

Show Description for Sunday 03/21/2010 David Meltzer this week on the 4 o'clock hour. DAVID MELTZER: Checklist of publications POETRY The Clown [Semina, 1960]. The Process [Oyez, l965]. The Dark Continent [Oyez, 1967]. Round the Poem Box [Black Sparrow Press, l969]. Yesod [Trigram, l969]. Luna [Black Sparrow Press, 1970]. Tens, Selected Poems, edited by Kenneth RexrothMcGraw-Hill, l973]. Hero/Lil [Black Sparrow Press, 1973]. The Art, The Veil [Membrane Press, 1981]. The Name: Selected Poetry, 1973-1983 [Black Sparrow Press, 1984]. Arrows: Selected Poetry, 1957-1992 [Black Sparrow Press, 1994]. No Eyes: Lester Young [Black Sparrow, 2000]. Beat Thing [La Alameda Press, 2004]. David’s Copy: Selected Poems; edited by Michael Rothenberg [Penguin, 2005]. Angelize [Word Temple, 2008].

Track	Artist	Song	Album	Label
	Bud Powell	Cleopatra's Dream	The Scene Changes	Blue Note
	Hank Mobley	Workout	Workout	Blue Note
	Betty Carter	Jazz (Aint' Nothin' But Soul)	The Modern Sound of Betty Carter	ABC - Paramount
	Betty Carter	For You	The Modern Sound of Betty Carter	ABC - Paramount
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	David Meltzer	From: The Lowlands	David Meltzer Poet w/Jazz	Sierra Records
	Hank Mobley	My Groove Your Move	Roll Call	Blue Note
	Betty Carter	My Shining Hour	'Round Midnight	Roulette
	Betty Carter	Something Wonderful	'RoundMidnight	Roulette
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	Carmen McRae	The Meaning of the Blues	Bittersweet	Focus
	Carmen McRae	If You Could Love Me	Bittersweet	Focus
	Carmen McRae	Spring Can ReallyHang You Up the Most	Bittersweet	Focus
-----------------------------air break-----------------------------
	David Meltzer	Misspliced Sermon	David Meltzer Poet w/Jazz	Sierra Records
	Ernie Henry	Active Ingredients(excerpt)	Presenting Ernie Henry	Riverside
	Interview with David Meltzer by Justin Desmangles

David Meltzer, poet, Bob Dorough, pianist (1958) - Misspliced Sermon

David Meltzer : Checklist of publications

DAVID MELTZER: Checklist of publications

POETRY

The Clown [Semina, 1960].
The Process [Oyez, l965].
The Dark Continent [Oyez, 1967].
Round the Poem Box [Black Sparrow Press, l969].
Yesod [Trigram, l969].
Luna [Black Sparrow Press, 1970].
Tens, Selected Poems, edited by Kenneth Rexroth [McGraw-Hill, l973].
Hero/Lil [Black Sparrow Press, 1973].
The Art, The Veil [Membrane Press, 1981].
The Name: Selected Poetry, 1973-1983 [Black Sparrow Press, 1984].
Arrows: Selected Poetry, 1957-1992 [Black Sparrow Press, 1994].
No Eyes: Lester Young [Black Sparrow, 2000].
Beat Thing [La Alameda Press, 2004].
David’s Copy: Selected Poems; edited by Michael Rothenberg [Penguin, 2005].
Angelize [Word Temple, 2008].


FICTION

The Agency Trilogy [Brandon House, l968; reprinted by Richard Kasak, 1994].
Orf [Brandon House, l969; reprinted by Masquerade Books, l995].
The Martyr [Brandon House, 1969].
Under [Rhinoceros Books, 1997].

ESSAYS

We All Have Something To Say To Each Other: Kenneth Patchen [Auerhan Press, 1962].
Two-Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook [Oyez, 1977].



EDITOR

The San Francisco Poets [Ballantine Books, 1971].
The Secret Garden: An Anthology in the Kabbalah [Continuum Press, 1976; reprinted, Station Hill Press, 1998].
Birth: Anthology of Ancients Texts, Songs, Prayers, and Stories [North Point Press, 1981].
Death: Anthology of Texts, Songs, Charms, Prayers, and Tales [North Point Press, 1984].
Reading Jazz [Mercury House, 1996].
Writing Jazz [Mercury House, 1999].
San Francisco Beat: Talking With the Poets [City Lights, 2001].

RECORDINGS

Serpent Power (Vanguard Records, l968; reissued on CD in 1996).
Poet Song (Vanguard Records, l969).
Green Morning (Capitol Records, 1970, unreleased; issued on vinyl from a Swiss company in 1999; CD, 2001).
Serpent Power/Poet Song (Italy, 2000).
David Meltzer: 1958; Jazz and Poetry (Sierra Records, 2005).
Serpent Power at KPFA (Locust Music, 2007).


Recipient of 2006 PEN Oakland/Jospehine Miles award for BEAT THING.









DAVID MELTZER

Raised up in Brooklyn during the War years; performed on radio & early TV on the Horn & Hardart Children’s Hour. Was exiled to L.A. at 16 & at 17 enrolled in an ongoing academy w/ artists Wallace Berman, George Herms, Robert Alexander, Cameron; migrated to San Francisco in l957 for higher education w/ peers & maestros like Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, Joanne Kyger, Diane DiPrima, Michael McClure, Lew Welch, Philip Whalen, Jack Hirschman, a cast of thousands all living extraordinary ordinary lives. Lists suck in their exclusionary momemtary temerity of blank.


BEAT THING [La Alameda Press, 2004] won the Josephine Miles PEN Award, 2005. Was editor and interviewer for SAN FRANCISCO BEAT: TALKING WITH THE POETS [City Lights, 2001]. Teach in the graduate Poetics program at New College of California, as well as in their outstanding undergraduate Humanities program. With Steve Dickison, co-edit SHUFFLE BOIL, a magazine devoted to music in all its appearances & disappearences. DAVID'S COPY, selected poems, published in 2005 by Viking/Penguin. DAVID MELTZER: Poetry W/ Jazz, 1958 recently (finally) issued by Sierra Records.

==

Also taught in the MA program in Creative Writing at S.F. State; conducted weekly workshops for four years at Vacaville State Prison; spent a year teaching at Urban Scool in San Francisco; recipient of an NEA grant for writing (mid ‘70s, am lousy w/ dates) --


Edited TREE, an irregular journal devoted to the Kabbalah as reflected in both modern & classical texts; was publisher & editor for Tree Books which published, among other titles, ELYA by Jabes (his first book to be published in U.S.), Malka Heifetz Tussman’s poetry translated by Marcia Falk, Rose Drachler, Jerome Rothenberg, Jack Hirschman, Andrei Codrescu, Nathaniel Tarn, &tc.

Have given readings in small & large venues, festivals, too numerous to recount or remember exact details; my works have been anthologized -- I suppose the most signifant appearence was in the Don Allen anthology, THE NEW AMERICAN POETRY; I felt most affirmed when a poem of mine was published in the weekly Yiddish FORWARD --