to celebrate the month I'm remembering my first chapbook: Into the Sea (Abraxas Press 1969). here I am at my reading to mark its 50th anniversary. it was at the Palm Springs gallery of artist Marconi Calindas. the cake was the work of Over the Rainbow.
& here I am the other day with a print of the cover.
altho I have the documentary pages I never photographd the envelopes for this piece. so I sometimes wonder what mite be left out there in the world. when I discover someone has saved it I'm thrilld. I'm grateful to Cynthia for saving & to Jenny for bringing it back to me. & then it will all go to my collection at Kent (which was Cynthia's wish if I died before getting her files).
yesterday I had lunch with Jennifer Pramuk. she's a biologist & artist. & the daughter of a dear friend who died 2 years ago.
she found among Cynthia's "things" 2 packets with notes that they shd be given to me. & so she brought them with her.
in my long life I've been lucky to have been photographd by some of the best. I now add to the list Randall Whitehead. he flew in from San Francisco for his birthday weekend & did a quick shoot in Sunny Dunes.
sometimes writing poems
is like foot juggling
I try to remember
Lou Bogert performing
at the county fair
when I was a boy
& he was on his back
balancing balls
on soles of his feet
writing this
I see myself
on my back
legs flailing
in anticipation
of contact
with word balls
such a silly scene
seems perfect
for a poem
another shock. in recent years I lost touch with Tom. but he was a meaningful person in my life.
I grew up knowing 2 clowns.
first there was Rollins the Clown. I recall few details of him. somehow my parents met him. we'd visit he & his wife in their small & messy house. they seemd old to me then. my major memory of that place were the plaster pieces they made. one that hung on the wall was the head of what mite've been a Persian prince. I remember being quite taken by his turban. I don't think we ever bought one. now I wish we had. I'm pretty sure I never saw him in his clown persona & can't be certain he ever made a living as one. years later I askd Dad abt Rollins' clownness & he was unable to recall details.
then there was a neighbor named Tom Redockovich. he workd at Bendix. I doubt he was ever a professional clown but he'd appear at local events. I took this of him at a party in our backyard in the summer of 1958.
the biggest clown encounter of my life was when I was in high school. I took part in a Cleveland Press interview of the legendary Emmet Kelly. he may have been America's most famous clown. as Weary Willie he personified the role of "sad clown." I still have this photo he signd for me that day.
these memories are the result of an unexpectd happening yesterday. after a film screening I stoppd in Sherman's to get a piece for cake to bring home. & there was Harpo the Clown. he appears in parades & other valley events. apparently he's a graduate of "clown college" at Ringley Brothers. Frank Sinatra paintd him & Snake Jagger has used his image for art pieces. he appeard in a film calld "A Thousand Cuts" (with a cameo by my friend Viga Dean).
