Ira Joel Haber (1947-2026)

 

my interview

 

actress Briza Covarrubias interviews me as we sit on the Poet's Bench. it's part of the documentary series "Aging Wildly."

not sure why but I'm unable to create a link. so if you want to see the video you either have to search You Tube or cut & paste this:

https://youtu.be/O-KMGpCCphc?si=4I49lQ_yGJcVJWWB

the first reviews are in & so far my performance has been calld "energetic" & "flamboyant." at this stage of life I'll take that.

when I wrote letters

 last nite I startd looking thru old files in search of something. this morning I kept on. I still haven't found that something but I'm finding so much more.

there's a file of my copies of letters -- most from 50 or more years ago. I humbly admit to being a great letter writer in the day. & I think I kept copies hoping that after I'm gone some bright young thing will edit a volume of them. & not because I'm any kind of celebrity but that I've been what I think it was Bryan Borland who calld me this -- a "culture witness."  I've been there when so many historic moments happend. or simply when important figures were doing important things. I mean I saw David Hockney paint & Dale Chihuly blow glass & Jean-Claude van Itallie write.

soooooo.... I was reading this 1971 letter to Frank Oatman & thot of being that culture witness. I know some accuse me of being a name dropper. I prefer to agree with Maggie Anderson who wrote that I document my life & in so doing "everything matters." so I'm offering this section of that letter to Frank because all these years later it feels like I was writing history. it was a rich time in the life of a lad still in his 20s. also -- if you haven't heard I have this great book out now calld "A Litter of Lists." & this is a list. yes I've been doing it forever.

_________________________________________________________

in New York for a week wrapped in a resplendent quilt of happenings:

        eating hash brownies with john ashbery (with whom we stayed) before going out for my birthday dinner

        listening to jean-claude at his new westbeth apartment read from his indian journal about his trip to conquer fear

        coming upon djuna barnes in all her elegant oldness strolling up & down w. 10th in front of patchin place

        lunching with lois wilson at sardi's

        discovering rauschenberg in a soft brown leather jacket at warhol's opening

        dining with henry van dyke at casey's before he took us on a mad spree of friends' apartments & village bars   touching edges with lindsay patterson   axel de knight   james coco

        gazing at the swing which hangs from the ceiling of harvey quaytman's loft

        watching john perreault argue with ira joel haber outside max's

local arts festival

a city-wide event calld XOXO. many offerings of music & theater & art. one artist transformd a whole building into a wild art happening to which I was invitd to read poems.

& some of my writing was on display as well as a piece from my art series "Circles."

one for the memory book

 

20 years ago I was the first poet to read at Palm Springs Art Museum. I began a series which ended with Anne Waldman. since then I've given some readings at galleries in town. but yesterday was a major addition to my list.

my friend & neighbor Michelle Fiore is an opera singer. she did a concert at the legendary Plaza Theater & askd some friends to perform with her.

let me tell you how historic this venue is. it opend in 1936 with the premiere of "Camille." the story is that Garbo slippd in unnoticed to watch the screening. later it became home to radio broadcasts of Bob Hope & Jack Benny. & then came the popular "Palm Springs Follies." 

after that closed its use was limitd & it became shabby. but some locals felt it needed to be saved & a 2-year $34 million restoration took place.

as far as I know I'm the first poet to read from that storied stage since it's reopening. it was thrilling to feel the response of an audience of 500. & makes me proud to be a part of the history of Palm Springs. 

David Hockney (1937-2026)

 

at the 2024 Hockney show at Palm Springs Art Museum. I'm holding a copy of my Poems that Fit in a Shoe open to an illiustration of a map David drew in my travel journal in Paris in oct 1973.

Ashbery by Kitaj

 

the current exhibition at Morgan Library is "Friends Who Came to See Me." it's drawings of John Ashbery which David Kermani donated.

of particular fascination to me is one by R. B. Kitaj. I feel like the midwife on that one.

in an old journal there's this from july 1971:

"3:15 p.m. John Ashbery just called to say he got my note & it's fine to give Kitaj his phone number. He likes Kitaj's work & is pleased he reciprocates.

3:30 p.m. a call from Kitaj: glad to hear John likes his work but will be so rushed leaving for London he doubts he'll have time to meet & sketch him..."

I didn't actually introduce them until feb 1974 at Kitaj's opening in NYC. this drawing was done in 1979.

june is bustin' out all over

 what a month this will be for me:

1) my new book -- A Litter of Lists -- is coming out.. it represents 55 years of list making.  it can be orderd now from Sibling Rivalry Press.

2) I'll be reading a few poems from the stage of the legendary Plaza Theater as part of the XOXO concert "Michelle Fiore & Friends" on the 14th.

3) my interview in the documentary series "Aging Wildy" will be releasd.

Marilyn 100

 to celebrate Marilyn Monroe's centennial Palm Springs is putting on 4 days of events.  the biggest was today -- breaking the world record for number of Marilyn impersonators in one place at one time.

the city sold a packet of wig & dress. rather than get into them & becoming a footnote in the Guinness record books I optd to create my own piece within the gathering near the Marilyn statue to count those dressing up.  so I cleand up with the bar of soap I bought at Quaker Square 50 years ago. I pin'd my Marilyn pandemic mask made by Cesar Julio to a baseball cap. & I gatherd up materials for my piece. 

I had some Marilyn post-its. I brought them & askd people in costume to imprint their lips on a post-it & then sign it. I askd men & women   people I knew & strangers. among them were photographer Stephen Baumbach & dear Marshall Pearcy (Dottie from Les Dames du Soleil). perhaps the most interesting was professional Marilyn impersonator Shelley Michelle. she is an ambassador for Billion Dollar Marilyn Lipstick & was actually wearing it when she kissd the post-it.

I didn't get as many as I'd hoped. it was hot & I was juggling the post-its & the book they were going into & a pen & my phone as well as having a tote hanging from my shoulder. but I did create my own work.

POSTCARD FOM CLEVELAND

somewhere

in a drawer

or family album

there mite be

a postcard

Anna May Wong

wrote

while on a press junket

a postcard

whose stamp

was lickd

by a teenage fan

she enlistd

to help her

a postcard

on which mingles

the DNA

of a movie legend

& a young poet

a postcard

on which they live

together forever

______________________________

for the origin of this poem see my Facebook post for this morning

"A Litter of Lists"

 in Postcard Memoirs I wrote:

"compiling lists began early. I remember writing down lists for Santa but I also recall going thru mailorder catalogs & keeping a mental tabulation of the one thing I wantd on each page. once when I was home from school in bed with a cold I startd a notebook in which I listd my favorite actors & tallied the movies I'd seen them in. eventually I kept lists of nominations for my own film awards.   ..."

so even before writing poems there were lists. a while ago I got the idea to bring some of that activity together. I creatd a manuscript I calld "A Litter of Lists." here were the actual chapbooks of lists but also poems & other musings which include them. all this spanning 55 years of publication. because it's not a normal collection I wonderd if it wd ever see print.

then one day at lunch at Billy Reed's I mentiond it to the publishers of Sibling Rivalry Press. Bryan Borland nearly jumpd from his seat & thrust his hand over our plates of pie saying he'd publish it. we shook hands.

& now the day has come. the press will issue the book next month. here's some of what they say abt it: "Formally inventive and deeply intimate, A Litter of Lists blurs the boundaries between poetry, archive, and memoir—offering a singular exploration of memory, attention, and the art of preserving a life."

it's available for pre-order now.

my newest list

 I've shaken hands

with

Jane Wyman

Chita Rivera

Stanley Crawford 

Margaret Tafoya

Pablita Velarde

Yomo Toro

Haskell Wexler

Richard Farnsworth

Eliseo Rodriquez

Donovan Leitch

Jan-Michael Gambill

Howard Dean

Elmer Schooley

Meinhardt Raabe

Gavin Newsom

Martin Heinrich

Kaye Ballard

Clu Gulager

Scotty Bowers

Trini Lopez

Nancy Pelosi

Bryan Borland 

Robert Garcia

Stephen Fry

but

I've kissd

Ava Gardner's hand

Swimming / pool

 Swimming -- the last of my trio of verse journals -- was written between Memorial Day 1974 & 15 sept of that year.

r.j.s. publishd an edition of "about 235 copies" in 1976. my bibliography states that "about 190 copies" had hand-paintd covers by Mary Ann Begland with another 40 copies lacking the cover.

earlier this month I began work on a book project & needed to consult Swimming. in my search for a copy I discoverd 100 copies of the title page which the publisher gave me.I had totally forgotten abt them.

most of the poems in the book centerd on my use of the swimming pool at my home in Twin Lakes OH. I now live in a condo in Palm Springs CA & swim every morning. I knew I had to bring the me of then together with the me of 52 years later.

so I got out of bed on this my 83rd birthday at 4:44 & did my morning exercises. I squeezd half a homegrown grapefruit. after scrolling thru a surprising amount of online greetings I had a spoon of Hemet honey. then I slippd into my white Armani speedo. I put on my Monterey Bay Inn bathrobe with one of "85 Envelopes" in one pocket & a page from Gildzen at 50 that I used in my piece "Gildzen at 80" in the other. I grabbd the pile of title pages & my Blue Moon towel & walkd to pool #8. I circled the pool with the pages. then I went in for my swim. afterward I gatherd the pages & dried off. then I walkd down the street to El Jefe for my usual saturday breakfast & I gave my server Ricky the first of the pages.

my guys

 from time to time I take an interest in certain men. I hesitate to call it obsession because of the negative connotation of that term. more so fascination.

currently there are 2 who intrigue me. Carlos Alcaraz (even tho I know naught abt tennis nor care to) & Jacob Elordi whose performance as the Creature in the current "Frankenstein" feels destined to become a classic.

they seem to be everywhere on social media & in the press. each in his own way is attractive but there also is an intelligence which charms me. & a dedication to the work.

within 24 hours each sufferd big career losses. I suspect the level of grace both bring to these disappointments will help define their characters. they are both in their 20s & already have tasted celebrity. one presumes their fame will continue to grow. & how they handle it will be part of who they become. I hope I will be able to continue to find them attractive.

Roberta Elzey Berke. (1943-2025)

 

"boulabaise"

we contain a reservoir of data. & sometimes a word will emerge from that & fly onto my lips .  this is from this morning. 

Bankside Ghost Sign

 

welcome home Liam

 

Palm Springs International Film Festival

 here are a couple of photos I took at last nite's awards gala.

in both actresses hold their Chihuly-designd award while hugging their presenter.

                                Amanda Seyfried & Ethan Hawke

                                Kate Hudson & Rob Marshall

Capodanno 2026 Palm Springs

 last nite: dinner at my neighbors. followd by a little poetry reading (at her request) which began with "Capodanno 1984   Venezia." I brought along the mask from Taverna La Fenice.

this morning: out of bed at 4:44. start load of laundry. morning exercises. squeeze half a grapefruit from tree outside bedroom window. check mail (celebrity obits & junk). spoon of Hemet honey. take off Monterey Bay Inn robe. put on white speedo. head to pool to greet the Andrews Sisters but stop'd by rain. return to put on Elyria sweatshirt & rippd jeans. breakfast of cereal in one of Julia's bowls & dark roast in Trevor's naked men mug.

after one of the darkest years in our nation's history I'm ready for a new year to bring justice against the criminals who spread hate in the name of religion & to restore dignity to a country nearly undone by fascism.