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.