Monday, October 29, 2012

Rascal (29)

I heard from the vicar at St. Clements that Rissa was living in a hospice.  He had been going to visit her.  I went with a notebook of my poems to read to her.

 

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Rascal (28)

Yossel der Wassertraeger was a poor man who was rewarded in heaven.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Rascal (27)

Mary Grace Bookhart introduced the Scribblers on Sunday evenings at the basement coffee house.  Rissa came on stage to tell stories. Mary and Suzie Kaufman played their auto harps.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Rascal (26)

Rascal watched as Rissa held court at the Goddard-Riverside Community Center, and performed at the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew.  She was a maternal spirit to the young poets.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Rascal (25)

At poetry readings and cafes,  Rissa could soothe the anxious poet/readers by rubbing their backs.  Her massages were like the poet's words.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Rascal (24)

Rascal visited the apartment building off of Broadway.  It was in walking distance from the brownstone townhouse on West 85th Street just east of Columbus Avenue.  He came alone at her invitation.  How did poetry connect them?  He was often hungry.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Rascal (23)

Rascal had written, "Torn from the/hanging gardens of/Babylon, tendrils/tell of love's last thrills."

Monday, October 22, 2012

Rascal (22)

Rissa introduced Rascal to the NYC poetry community with readings on the Upper West Side and Greenwich Village;  with poets like Barbara Holland, Emilie Glenn, Ree Dragonette, Richard Davidson, Fritz Hamilton, and Brett Rutherford at Poet's Press.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Rascal (21)

Rissa entertained Rascal in her small kitchen.  He sat at the table while she prepared a hot drink at her stove.  Then she sat down beside him, sharing her pictures and speaking of her personal history and her attachment to the Jewish people, even though she had converted to the bahai faith.


Saturday, October 20, 2012

Rascal (20)

She called it Poets Chamber Theatre.  In the Village she had been poetry coordinator for Cafe Cino on Cornelia Street.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Rascal (19)

Rascal would listen to the grandmotherly bohemian talk of the Village in the 1940's & 50's.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Rascal (18)

Rissa returned from Chicago to live on the Upper West Side.  She read of the poetry reading in Wisdom's Child and joined the Scribblers at Goghi Lee's 3 flight walk up.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Rascal (17)

Rascal and Rissa sat in her kitchen looking at old postcards.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Rascal (16)

She was about breaking down boundaries.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Rascal (15)

Rascal visited Rissa, who asserted herself into the Scribblers in 1974.   Her apartment was just east of Broadway in the 90's.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Rascal (14)

That's what happens, Rascal, when you write your poems on white sheets of lighting.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Rascal (13)

Along West 85th Street

From Central Park West toward Columbus Avenue, Rascal walked in a vale lined by brownstone rowhouses.  He entered number 66, unlocked the front door, and walked up to the fourth floor apartment where he found Goghi Lee rehearsing a scene for her acting class.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Rascal (12)

Passing West 77th Street

The bus drove up Central Park West, Rascal watched out his window for the Museum of Natural History.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Rascal (11)

Upon the white page of lightning Rascal wrote a poem.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Rascal (10)

When the Itinerant Poets played the Rat Racers the score was nil to null.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Rascal (9)

Late at night, only a handful of passengers on the bus to Harlem. Rascal listened to echos of Miles Davis in the trumpet played by a passenger.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Rascal (8)

Rascal took the M-10 up Central Park West to be with Goghi Lee.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Rascal (7)

Birdless? Rascal, what were you thinking? -- Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Rascal (6)

Taking elements from Eliot's Fire Sermon in The Waste Land and Lazarus's New Colossus.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Rascal (5)

Fears, trembling and love:

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Rascal (4)

"you hungry thief" -- Artema said the dancer's career in the arts has a short life span. She told Rascal that the poets don't take care of their bodies the way that dancers do.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Rascal (3)

At W. 85th Street, during the spring and over the summer of 1975, Rascal had listened to Goghi Lee rehearse her part in Godspell.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Rascal (2)

In a SoHo loft, Artema choreographed her dances while Rascal played with words, considering the cost of art in the diverse city.

Monday, October 1, 2012

Rascal

In 1975 Rascal moved his nest from the Upper West Side to Greenwich Village.

He could no longer live with the actress while dating the modern dancer.  He had rented a studio apartment on West Tenth Street.


Artema was a dancer and choreographer.