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Michael C Ford's new collectible, illuminated edition of poetry:
IN CASE OF FLOOD...
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COLUMN: "LYNN ROGERS REVIEWS..."
MICHAEL C FORD'S "IN CASE OF FLOOD..."
REVIEWED BY LYNN ROGERS, M.A.
Dipping into the Illuminated Edition of Michael C. Ford’s work IN CASE OF FLOOD STAND ON THIS BOOK…IT’S DRY ENGLISH is like following a river of spilled wine, in and out of creative outpourings from this multitalented Beat poet, critic, jazz commentator, artist who now becomes a Legend.
In addition, this is the most beautiful book designed to date by its publisher, Daniel Yaryan, and he has shaped many.
From nostalgia anchored in ‘50s Southern California, with the requisite peripatetic wanderings, to critical asides (sans misogyny by the way, yeah!) his poetic prose is spooled out over many a moody graphic collage. Yes, the euphonious Ford can turn a phrase, especially about his area’s claim to cultural cool; “Tidewater pouring into sand/ pool cup/brims over a Pacific coastal/afternoon.”
Thus, he evokes nearby Hermosa, Altadena, La Crescenta, Mohave, Rialto Radio Theater etc. “Homeless World War 2 veterans making a racket like inebriated mockingbirds boinked on bad bourbon under the sill of Sunday mornings in Monrovia.” Personifying “Pomona, Pomona you were child to this Los Angeles father whenever mother got sick,” he draws us into his fabled anti-land of noir and beyond into the heart of hip America, by rail or imagination.
His allusions to musicians from Davis, Pepper and Getz, to Morrison, to literature like that of Elliott and Joyce, reflect Beat perceptions. Michael C Ford says for example, that Joyce found “the idols of the commercial marketplace supremely unimportant”, whereas Ford admits to the contrary that “a few icons of the marketplace, mainly those related to film or music or anything automotive or creative cartooning…billboard advertising…packaging…” are inherently poetic. And that distinguishes Beat sensibilities from those purely literary or academic. Ford encourages other poets who create on the edge and so are deemed illiterate by the literary mainstream, not to take such snobbery to heart.
And Michael C Ford can, on occasion, incorporate the Feminine: “…we are erecting imaginative pedestals of insane worship of certain women…” …”wind out of the West Indies able to say its name with no sexist accusations/or feminist injunctions…” “If you were my wife I’d ride prairie schooners to the shores of your flowery Kansas mouth..”
He experiments with reverse Catholic “sacraments,” suggesting mixed feelings about their meanings: “Art farther out than Heaven,” complements Kerouac’s associating the term Beat with biblical Beatitudes: Anti-materialistic, they of course suggested a natural simplicity and spiritual surrender as with the lilies of the field.
Ford goes further to create poetry and a kind of beauty amid and from ugly damage done to the environment: “Note on the orange grove obsolescence along Route 66 between the San Gabriel gateway and the City of San Bernardino.”
“What’s writ down, here, is in defense of any Southern California’s neighborhood architectural blight.”
In a similar way he creates ambivalent poetic human profiles. Take “The Importance of a Tennis Racquet,” a key piece in this book: It has place, Mariposa (meaning butterfly) Drive; nostalgia, “the blue innocence of my childhood.”
It recalls the elegiac lyricism of the most well-known Beat poet, Allen Ginsberg. The reader can hear reverberations of familial Kaddish themes in Michael C Ford’s own description of his antihero uncle before he got “rousted for robbery and sentenced to death in an alcoholic ward at Utica…” On the other hand, remembers “when I was 7 making him recollect a memory of The Army Airforce bombing of Dresden and all that he’d/ Been trying to forget?”
Ford identified with this uncle he never really knew, but wanted to forget because of “the memory of a toppled Christmas tree - the star of Bethlehem broken on the/Family living room..and he’s puking into/Somebody’s ribbon-brocaded Radio Flyer wagon.”. Despite these insults, the author was imaginatively imprinted with his wayward uncle’s earlier image: “recalling a snapshot of you on Skokie Country Club court when you were 16 and When you held your racquet like a saber…”
In short Michael C. Ford’s poetic life reminiscences let us revel in the flow of literary and artistic insight over time, spilled out now into in this Illuminated, full color coffee table edition, designed by Beat commemorator, Daniel Yaryan, like fine vintage wine.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER:
LYNN ROGERS M.A. was inspired by Beat icons and ideas as a youth on the road with Cassady and Kesey. Recently she has been invited into Who’s Who of America as Author; Artist; Advocate. She has written 14 books beginning with Born in Berkeley, created prolific mixed media art pieces and advocated for the marginalized. She co-hosted Sparring with Beatnik Ghost in Northern California; served as contributor, staff artist and author for Daniel Yaryan who has encouraged and understood her work as no other/
ABOUT THE BOOK AUTHOR MICHAEL C FORD:
MICHAEL C FORD is an America poet, playwright, editor and recording artist who is influenced by poet Kenneth Patchen in terms of integrating spoken words with Jazz. Ford has published steadily for over 50 years and is credited with 40 volumes of both print product and recorded solo tracks and compilations. He has created collaborative recordings with members of “The Doors” including drummer John Densmore, pianist and keyboardist Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger. Ford has also performed in poetry shows with Jim Morrison, Jack Hirschman and Michael McClure among others. His debut spoken word vinyl (on SST Records) Language Commandoearned a Grammy nomination in 1986. His book of selected poems, Emergency Exits, was honored by a 1998 Pulitzer Prize nomination.
MORE INFORMATION:
AVAILABLE NOW! Michael C Ford's new poetry volume IN CASE OF FLOOD STAND ON THIS BOOK IT'S DRY ENGLISH is an "Illuminated Edition" featuring full-color graphic intensifiers throughout to compliment Ford's incredible poems.
- Hardbound U.S. Letter 8.5x11
- Designed by Yaryan
- Full-color volume with art from 25 contributors!
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OTHER MEDIA BY MICHAEL C FORD:
- Stuttering in the Starlight (1970)
- There’s a Beast in My Garden (1971)
- Sheet Music [chapbook-length poem] (1972)
- Lacerations in a Broomcloset [pamphlet of prose] (1973)
- Lawn Swing Poems (1975)
- Rounding Third (1976)
- West Point [chapbook-length poem] (1977)
- Sleepless Night in a Soundproof Motel (1978)
- Prologue to an Interview with Leonard Cohen [replicated prose broadside] (1979)
- Two American Plays (1980)
- Sloe Speed [chapbook-length poem] (1984)
- Prior Convictions (1985)
- Language Commando [spoken word vinyl disc (1986)
- Ladies Above Suspicion (1987)
- Motel Café [12-inch spoken word vinyl disc (1988)
- Twice [a sheath of broadsides] (1989)
- Fire Escapes [spoken word CD] (1994)
- Cottonwood Tract [chapbook-length poem] (1996)
- Emergency Exits [Selected Poems: 1970-1995] (1998 Pulitzer nomination on the 1st ballot)
- Nursery Rhyme Assassin (2000)
- To Kiss the Blood off Our Hands (2007)
- The Marilyn Monroe Concerto [pamphlet edition] (2007)
- The Demented Chauffeur [and Other Mysteries] (2009)
- The Las Vegas Quartet [4-part pamphlet edition] (2011)
- San Joaquin County Solutions [collaboration with North Central Valley photo-journalist Rose Albano Risso] (2011)
- Atonal Riffs to a Tone-deaf Border Guard (2012)
- Crosswalk Casserole (2013)
- Look Each Other in the Ears [recorded tracks released in both CD & vinyl formats] (2014)
- The Driftwood Crucifix [a chapbook length poem] (2015)
- Women under the Influence (2016)
- The War Chamber Ministry (2019)
- Manhattan Island Suite / Block Island Latitudes [2 chapbooks in a double header format (2020)
- Populated Wilderness (2022)
- Home Fires Burning (2023)
THE LONG-AWAITED BOOK BY ANNE mARIE mAXWELL OUT NOW!
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THE UNEXPURGATED, TRUE STORY OF NEAL CASSADY & ANNE MURPHY
Tripping with a Viper author Anne Marie Maxwell (aka Anne Murphy, as she was known in the 1950s and 1960s) tells her autobiographical story of her adventures as a longtime lover and romantic, travel partner of Beat icon Neal Cassady “without fiction, facelifting or varnish, just as I’ve sometimes painfully and often gratefully recalled it,” says Maxwell. Her writing traverses many roads of America (and beyond) with this “unexpurgated, true story of Neal Cassady and Anne Murphy.” It journeys further past the facade of pop culture fascination and excitement galvanized by Beat Generation writers, artists and poets. Her first-person account enters a zone of struggle through the consequences and detriments accrued for a non-conformist life lived devoid of limitations. For the first time, Maxwell’s memoir is brought to the publishing world for a new generation of readers to explore. It is one of the most important accounts of the female perspective of the Beat Generation as a counterbalance to the otherwise overrepresented male-driven narrative. Anne Marie Maxwell is no longer just a spoke from Neal Cassady’s wheel of influence and inspiration. This first, fully published edition, gives her back her long-lost voice and is a testament to her intellectual, spiritual and sexual powers.
—Daniel Yaryan, publisher, Mystic Boxing Commission
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REVIEW COLUMN: "sparchive poetry collector"
CHARLES PLYMELL’S OVER THE STAGE OF KANSAS
REVIEWED BY DANIEL YARYAN
Charles Plymell’s latest book Over the Stage of Kansas (New & Selected Poems1966-2023) is a surrealist joyride of contemplation, exciting encounters and first-hand accounts of a lifetime of adventure outside the mainstream. Plymell and his artist comrades together were a mid-century wild bunch of creative pioneers, hailing from the bullseye of America. Plymell, along with his friends and kindred, artistic spirits of the same region of Kansas were from a group known in counter-culture legacy as the “Wichita Vortex.” Charley, as he’s known by his close friends and collaborators, sprang from his stomping ground of Kansas with other quintessential Beat-era Wichitans: artists Robert Branaman, Bruce Conner and poet Alan Russo, among others (including famed Beat poet Michael McClure and actor/filmmaker Dennis Hopper). It was a staging ground and springboard for youthful rebellion, unconventional mores, as well as an over-burst of artistic expression. Charley and company were compelled to bee-line their way from the rural, rustic plains of Kansas to the well-springs of bohemianism in California and New York, where they could add to a blooming cultural revolution in the making.
In Plymell’s poem “In Kansas” he expresses strong feelings about the Kansas he left in the dust, summarized in the poem stanza as follows:
But in Kansas you may have
the madman’s dream,
white whale on the desolate plains.
Or wild strawberries
of a baby’s dream
crushed beyond repair
There’s a chronology of when his poems were written included in Over the Stage of Kansas, although all the places and times described in the poems defy that chronology, hopping around consistently. Which is suitable because this big 370-page volume stems from many previously published books and chapbooks dating back to 1966 – a hefty sum of them referenced in the table of contents – selected and played in jukebox fashion as you read onward. This is the best Plymell poetry book to purchase and read right now because it gathers the essence of all of those older editions that are now worth some moolah as rare books, hard-to-find chapbooks and out-of-print collections from the Beat-Hippie axis. In other words, this book is an affordable gateway drug to the highs of Plymell poetry. Andy Warhol superstar and collaborator Gerard Malanga edited and wrote the foreword to Over the Stage of Kansas. In his foreword, Malanga states that he finds it inconceivable that Plymell is not a famous poet. “It’s a wonder he hasn’t received the recognition and respect that came easy to others of his generation,” said Malanga. “The fact is, Charley’s work represents some of the best poetry being written in America at this or any other time. It just is. Real and honest.”
I also agree with Malanga that one of the best poems in Stage is “In Memory of My Father.” In it, you get a beautiful glimpse of where Plymell came from:
To you who sung the riddles of that desolate Atlantis
While wind-worn wagons swept a sunken trail into eternal dust.
To your sod, your grass, your easy hills of flint from glacial
slope to wanderlust. “Perfect cattle country . . . the best I’ve
seen since Uruguay.” I’d oft heard you say, your dreams and maps
unfolded beneath those eyes that invented skies, could you
have known the winter owl’s alarm where black beasts of angus grazed?
I could not see as far, but went my way, you understood, and
Watched the windmills tell their listless joy to silt and seam.
Life must be beautiful or all is lost . . . those bison of the clouds
were pushed from life . . . slaughtered for sport . . . now they are the
stern clouds watching us from eternity and far beyond.
At 89 years old, Plymell is a poet I’d describe as one of the last “road going,” traveling, sojourning Beats. This is reflected in his writing throughout this book, such as with “Apocalypse Rose” with imagery such as this…
The hand that strikes the match at night
soon may grasp the torch of liberty.
While a dog tail dipped into a wound
holds the mirror union of the senses
Here’s another striking, insightful stanza from the same poem, written by Plymell, who you can tell spent a great deal of time with and was influenced by Allen Ginsberg (note: Plymell was the first one to turn Ginsberg on to Bob Dylan’s music):
Do those who cannot see, love darkness?
Does nightingale trade its song for fame?
Are you in human form, calm once more
With your imploding love to blame?
“Apocalypse Rose” is a brilliant poem that harkened the sympathy for fellow humankind that the Beats embodied, including the plight of people trying to survive on the streets. In one segment of the poem, Plymell ponders the existence of the cruelty and callousness toward the downtrodden, describing a wino dying in a stack of cardboard, then having other winos stacking cardboard and sleeping on top of his long-dead body, described as being “crushed like a rose in a Bible.”
There are several poems delving into the day-in-the-life grind of San Francisco streets. Another is this cool riff on “Apocalypse Rose” titled “Petal from the Rose,” here’s the whole petal:
Baby break that mind trap in time stigmata
through your outline has gone beyond the changes
of the mercury in your flaming youth!
Weary streets of waiting,
walking,
under the marquees of all night movies
on the meat block
where teen-age hustlers cruise.
Market St.
And the moon is full.
We see an old newsreel with the face of Dillinger.
“He smiles on the right side of his face,”
You say, “like Bogart.”
Voices in the fog
dispelled the blocks
of waves bright lights hung on.
In Over the Stage of Kansas, there are many phenomenal poems Plymell dedicated to many of his friends and cohorts, including Bob Branaman, actor Dean Stockwell, poet Jack Micheline, John Cassady (with a poem about Neal Cassady and Anne Marie Murphy – both of which were Plymell’s flat mates in San Francisco in the sixties).
Yet, the one dedication that I find to be the most powerful is his poem “From the Neo Surrealmic Manifesto (For S. Clay Wilson).” Plymell and Wilson were friends for many years, starting when he first published Wilson in Grist magazine from Lawrence, Kansas. It helped launch Wilson’s career, solidified with his inclusion of Zap magazine, not long after Plymell printed the premiere issue of Zap on his Multilith 1250 press in 1968. The underground comix movement was a shared passion of the two friends. After S. Clay Wilson became a famous counter-culture figure and famous artist, he always stayed in constant contact with Plymell – a friendship and correspondence superbly documented in the Water Row Books special artbook edition of Dear Charlie.
Here, is a fantastic stanza that sums up why it is among the top selections in Stage, especially among the dedicated poems:
Do you know something I don’t know, man?
Don’t let the bolts and liquid wrenches creep
upon you
or the punk ghosts will squeeze the
rat cowboy
out of his sleazy hormones
Probably the most spiritual, signature poem of Plymell’s is really the pyrotechnic, fascinating, big-finish offering of the epic “We Heard the Game Lord Speak, His Voice Became the Vision (Animals learn from Nature. Man must learn from Animals to understand nature’s reprisal).” This is undoubtedly bound to be the most talked about and is clearly the most visionary poem of Plymell’s in this collection. It is sensational; so here’s a little snippet from the 14-page poem to wet your appetite for something special that falls into a Robinson Jeffers and William Everson category of high-powered nature-as-conduit-holy-hero zone. This is an area of great interest to me, being a follower of Everson, who was a devout disciple of Jeffers. There is a uniqueness though in Plymell’s voice, being one that can morph between the boundaries of humanity’s terrain and the natural world. Here is a preview of the poem that conjures up the native images of Plymell’s Kansas vortex:
All suffered forever more man animal voice of space void
of hands and brains to conquer, attack, render
destruction in the name power taught in all curricula
to become aware of death in first written history
or discuss afterlife of the abstract gods
while elephants sensed their burial place.
Over the Stage of Kansas (New & Selected Poems1966-2023) is published by Bottle of Smoke Press and can be found on bospress.net or other booksellers online.
ABOUT THIS COLUMN:
ABOUT THE "SPARCHIVE":
The Kamstra Sparring Archive (AKA "SPARCHIVE" is a collection of art, literature, memorabilia and items of historical significance to creative movements past and present. It is the special collection of the Mystic Boxing Commission (MBC) and an interactive museum open to members of the MBC. This column is one of the features of the Sparchive.
PLYMELL BIO:
Charles Plymell (born April 26, 1935, in Holcomb, Kansas) is a poet, novelist, and small press publisher. Plymell has been published widely, collaborated with, and published many poets, writers, and artists, including principals of the Beat Generation.
He has published, printed, and designed many underground magazines and books with his wife Pamela Beach, a namesake in avant-garde publishing. He published former prisoner Ray Bremser and Herbert Huncke, whom he identified with from the hipster 1950s. He was influential in the underground comix scene, first printing Zap Comix artists such as Robert Crumb and S. Clay Wilson, whom he first published in Lawrence, Kansas.
Plymell received a citation for being a distinguished poet by Governor Joan of Kansas and was cited in the 1976 World Book Encyclopedia as a most promising poet.
CHARLES PLYMELL BOOKS:
- Apocalypse Rose,Auerhahn Press, 1967
- Neon Poems, Atom Mind Publications, 1970
- The Last of the Moccasins,City Lights Books,, 1971; Mother Road Publications, 1996
- The Trashing of America Phase 1, Tuvoti, 1973
- Over the Stage of Kansas, Telephone Books, 1973
- The Trashing of America, Kulchur Foundation, 1975
- Blue Orchid Numero Uno, Telephone Books, 1977
- Are you a Kid?,Cherry Valley Ediitions,, 1977
- Moccasins Ein Be*Cut Here, at-Kaleidoskop, Europaverlag, 1980
- Panik in Dodge City, Expanded Media Editions, 1983
- The Harder They Come, Am Here Books 1985
- Forever Wider, 1954–1984, Scarecrow Press, 1985
- Was Poe Afraid?, Bogg Publications, 1990.
- journals of Lysidia, Synesthesia Press, 1999
- Reefer Madness in the Age of Apostasy, Butcher Shop Press 2000.
- Hand on the Doorknob,Water Row Books, 2000
- in Memory of My Father, Cherry Valley Editions, 2003
- Cut Here, 12 Gauge Press, 2002
- Song for Neal Cassady, 12 Gauge Press, 2002
- Bennies From Heaven, 12 Gauge Press, 2002
- Rabid Ronnie Rap Back Jive Kansas, 1955, 12 Gauge Press, 2002
- Some Mothers' Sons, Cherry Valley Editions, 2004
- Neal and Anne on Gough Street, The Beat Scene Press, 2007
- News, Glass Eye Books, 2007
- Beginning Millenium: No More Vinyl Bush War, Glass Eye Books, 2008
- The Lost Poems of Charley Plymell, M Press, 2010
- Eat Not Thy Mind, Eye Books Ecstatic Peace Library, 2010
- Curricula Me Vita, Glass Eye Books/Ecstatic Peace/Cherry Valley Editions 2011
- Animal Light, Verlag Peter Engstler, 2012
- Tent Shaker Vortex Voice, Bottle of Smoke Press, 2012
- Benzedrine Highway, Kicks Books, 2013
- Planet Chernobyl, Verlag Peter Engstler, 2015
- Apocalypse Rose, Lenka Lente, 2015
- Incognito, Ergo Sum, Ragged Lion Press 2016
DISCOGRAPHY:
- Rod McKuen Reads in Memory of My Father, Cherry Valley Editions, Vinyl, 1978.
- Man Overboard, Charles Plymell (Voice),The Clubber Lang Gang, CD, 2012.
- Blackbird by Andrea Schroeder, "Bebop Blues", Glitterhouse Records, Berlin, 2012
- Where The Wild Oceans End by Andrea Schroeder, "The Rattlesnake", Glitterhouse Records, Berlin, 2014
- Tamatebako by CUZ, "Sand and Bones", bleeding heart recordings, UK, 2014.
- Cuz, Mike Watt & Sam Dook, Bad Veronica, Charles Plymell (Voice), UK, 2015.
- Animal Light, Charles Plymell (Voice), Verlag Peter Engsler , CD, 2015
- Planet Chernobyl, Charles Plymell (Voice), Verlag Peter Engstler, Germany, CD, 2015
- Void by Andrea Schroeder, "Was Poe Afraid?" Glitterhouse Records, Berlin, 2016
- Apocalypse Rose, poem bilingual text; music CD by Bill Nace, Lenka Lentes, Nantes, France, 2016.
- Bloodshot Bill Sings Charles Plymell, Feeding Tube Records, and Bottle of Smoke Press, 2017.
- Apocalypse Rose, Charles Plymell (Voice), Bill Nace (music), openmouthrecords,2017
Featured Mystic Boxer
MARC KOCKINOS (IN MEMORIAM, 4/29/62 -- 2/2/24)
(Photo of Marc Kockinos by Robert Fischer, 2021.)
My mind contains many fond recollections of kindred comrade Marc Kockinos, who departed this world February 2, 2024 after a bout with cancer. Marc and I met when we were both participants of the San Francisco literary arts scene, coinciding with the early years of my multimedia poetry series Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts, which began August 23, 2008 in the city by the Bay. We first met earlier that year at the Beat Museum at the Beat Friar Brother Antoninus induction celebration and exhibit. We quickly became comrades and read at the same poetry venues throughout The City. On one occasion, after I featured at Gallery Café, Marc and I headed over to Hotel Utah’s weekly, long-standing Monday night open mic and performed our poetry to music with mutual poet friend and pianist extraordinaire Steve Arntson. At the end of the night, my car had been towed and I needed to get home to my kids in Santa Cruz. Marc, to the rescue, drove me all the way to Santa Cruz and I dealt with the car situation later.
Many-a-night when I was visiting San Francisco as I frequently did, Marc and I would grab pints at places in North Beach such as Vesuvio’s, Specs or Tosca; often times in the Mission District too after the popular 16th and Mission reading (during part of that time I lived in nearby Burlingame). We shared many brother-deep stories and had fantastic discussions about the many challenges of life, world situations and pondering the universe as thinking beings often do (and he was highly intelligent, yet never judgmental or ego-maniacal as many other creative people I’ve encountered over the years). He had empathy for people and always cared about and wanted to know in all sincerity how they were doing or how he could help if he could. Bottom line, he was a real “people-person,” never of the commonplace, superficial variety and never self-declared. This trait is perhaps what made him such a successful organizer and host of one of the largest poetry events in the United States, which was called “Poetic Brew” in San Diego which set attendance records in the hundreds monthly, prior to moving to Northern California’s Mill Valley. A SF suburb, Mill Valley is a short distance north of the Golden Gate Bridge – rich in the arts and majestic beauty, which includes Mount Tamalpais, one of Marc’s favorite hiking spots, maybe second only to Muir Woods.
Marc hosted Open Heart Poetry at Om Shan Tea in the Mission District and was a member of San Francisco’s Revolutionary Poet’s Brigade, which also included the late, great SF Poet Laureate Emeritus Jack Hirschman, among many other trailblazers.
Marc was an active member of the IATSE Local 16, San Francisco. Local 16 said “Kockinos was often seen on the Trade Show floor, in the Breakout rooms, and the Keynote sessions. He was known for his compassion, deep booming voice, and expertise in nearly every facet of event production. He handled audio mixers as well as projectors; and was always happy to mentor newer folks in all the different skills that modern video and audio techs need these days. He was also very active in the SF and San Diego literary circles, as a poet and spoken-word performer. As well, he was a photographer, just an all-around lover of the arts.” I recall how dedicated Marc was to his job. One time I was on my way to the Berkeley Poetry Festival in 2012 for a special presentation of Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts. I took the BART train from the Fremont station up to the BART stop by Berkeley City College where the event was held. As I disembarked the train, I got a call from Marc asking if I could take over for him as host of the festival (about an hour before it began). He was called into work for an emergency and regretfully couldn’t make the event. I hosted in his stead and performed a Sparring set. I was grateful and honored that Marc thought of me to take his place for the event. Really though, no one could compare. He was one of the best hosts I’d even seen, with a calm demeanor, respect (and patience) for performers. Also, he understood how to engage the audience with a seamless command of the microphone.
Marc Kockinos hosted and performed in many Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts events over the years in Santa Cruz, Berkeley and San Francisco. He was truly masterful at delivering unforgettable professional events. In Marc, I found the optimal representative, along with co-host Ginger Murray, to usher the famous Poetry Festival back to Santa Cruz on 2/12/12 at the historic Cocoanut Grove Grand Ballroom at the Beach Boardwalk. It took a year to plan and was one of the greatest projects I had ever produced. The festival showcased 40 of some of the finest poets and musicians for an all-day extravaganza. Marc was part of the magic of that day, whereas he helped resurrect a cultural phenomenon in Santa Cruz that had been absent from the town for 30 years.
Marc was a dear friend who’s resounding voice I can still hear every time I read his indelible poems. I encourage people to watch some videos of Marc performing his work at Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts and other fabulous shows on YouTube. I’ve also included some of his poems herewith in honor of Marc, which prove his words are just as everlasting with the same vitality and energy once captured through his live performances throughout countless spoken word stations. Rest in Peace, dear friend! May you have many great conversations in the ethereal night with fellow Greek poets Homer and Hesiod. May Calliope and the other muses forever be in your corner!
– Daniel Yaryan, MBC Publisher
...
POUND OF FLESH
by Marc Kockinos
If all the spoon-fed illusions
that you have followed since youth
of easy success and popularity..
shattered like glass at your feet.:
Would you pay..
Would you pay..
..to be Free?
If something pure called
from out of the darkness
like a distant lighthouse
leading you back to shore:
Would you pay..
Would you pay..
..to be Free?
Always chasing an idea
down a hundred blind alleys
and over and over
it dispels like fog
just as you touch:
Would you pay..
Would you pay..
..to be Free?
After you've spent another day..
After you've spent another month..
After you've spent another year..
wrestling with a desire
that you can not name:
(Pound of Flesh: 1 of 2 )
Would you pay..
Would you pay..
..to be free?
As you finally start
to understand what it is
that you've been searching for;
you pour your soul out
to all your friends,
but no one seems to know
exactly what you mean,
and no one seems
to really even care:
Would you pay..
Would you pay..
..to be Free?
When discontent smolders
from behind your lovers' eyes;
and all you have to exchange
for a guarantee of comfort,
is your most heart-felt dream:
Would you pay..
Would you pay..
..to be Free?
...
POEMS BY MARC KOCKINOS
INTERRUPTED JOURNEY
Spiraling shards of glass
capture the sun
for one glowing moment
before skipping across asphalt
like miniature mountain peaks
shrouded by the rippling haze
of late afternoon heat.
She had been dreaming
of a roadside diner;
easing tight muscles into
the overstuffed cushions
of a naugahyde booth.
Her hands raising
a tall glass of ice tea
to parched lips.
But now she turns slowly
on a bed of arid wind,
seeing / not seeing
the ball of flame
that was her car
rolling across
the freeway
below her.
At the apex of her flight
she lies perfectly still;
for one glowing moment
she reaches up for the summer clouds
that revolve just beyond her grasp.
Before she starts the long,
inevitable descent, to the ground.
...
OPEN MIC INVOCATION (Part 3)
We are gathered here tonight
To join together
In a Community
For a few brief hours
To express whatever
Poetry that we may choose
From chronicling
Our common experience
To taking a firm stand
On our first amendment
Rights to speak freely
About all the subjects
Censored by society
We may use some satire
To focus a spotlight
On all the foolishness
That pretends to be wise
Or if we feel like it:
We might bring that Beat back
To the San Francisco Bay
Not some retro fashion
Of beret wearing beatniks
Beating on bongos
And raccoon-mascara’d
Cool cat chicks just in it
For the kicks, man, kicks
But rather a poetry
Born at the point where
Working class experience
and the transcendental intersect
Voices blowing out a pure
Be bop note ecstatic
As the free verse of Whitman
Or laying down a backbeat
In the harsh lexicon
That rises from the street
So, whether you choose to perform
Hip Hop or Homeric Verse
Read at Slams or write Sonnets
Step on up to the Mic
And bring the Word into Flesh
In all it’s myriad forms
Step Up!
All you technicians of verse
With your well-crafted constructions
Step Up!
All you seeking solace
In a labyrinth of words
Step Up!
Any newcomers in our midst
And we will support that
First nerve-wracking read
In front of an Audience
Step up!
All you Revolutionaries
Fighting for a better day
Step up!
All you angry iconoclasts
Railing against all the
Injustices of life
Step up!
All you Survivors
Driven to bear witness
To the atrocities
Never viewed by History
Step Up!
All you wayward travelers
recreating far off lands
before the eyes of our mind
Step Up!
All you true romantics
Serenading the One
that sets your heart aflame
Step Up! All you Bards
Of human existence
Step Up! All you healers
Of the invisibly wounded
STEP UP!
All YOU WHO RAISE YOUR VOICE
AGAINST THE LONELINESS
OF THE AMERICAN NIGHT!
NEW RELEASE! BORN IN BERKELEY
$24.99
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Lynn Rogers' Born In Berkeley is a coming-of-age story from the perspective of a young woman in the 1960s that picked up where the Beat Generation left off. A powerful novel based on a true story in the heart of a counterculture movement.
- A Mystic Boxing Commission Exclusive.
- Foreword by James Stauffer
- Afterword by Anne Marie Maxwell
- Trade Paperback
- Graphic intensifiers and original artwork from the author.
- Cover artwork by Fitz.
REVIEWS:
“Lynn Rogers' Born in Berkeley is a 60s coming-of-age story as related to Colly who is determined from an early age to live life on her own terms. Colly's is a world made vital, personal and real by Rogers' beautifully expressed voice of experience. Against a background of receding Beat creativity and rising 60s idealism, the book is poignant with the pain of rejection, the tentative search for love and acceptance. I was drawn by the lovely and almost hypnotic poetry of words and sensations presented here, and made to wonder what I might have missed in that very important time.”
--Dale Aycock, Author--Starspinner 1 & 2, Stardrifter
“Born in Berkeley takes me back to a time a lot of us have forgotten. When the sexual revolution has just begun. We as women felt we had to be agreeable to be accepted. And this teenage girl was made to feel that if she wasn't agreeable to men's advances, she was not part of the revolutions. A good description of an era that was even more sexist than today, when women were not given a choice. Very apt descriptions of the San Francisco Bay Peninsula, during that tumultuous era."
--Dr. Katherine Derby, Los Gatos, CA
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MYSTIC BOXING COMMISSION: SPARRING ARTISTS EXCHANGE
EXCITING BOOKS NOW AVAILABLE!
Coming Soon! The Sparring Artists (2024) Annual #2
$29.99 +$5 shipping
Coming October 31, 2024! The Sparring Artists is the Literary Anthology of Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts. This edition is Annual #2 and has two special guest editors: S.A. Griffin and Richard Modiano. Last year's edition made L.A. Taco's list of The Best 37 Books About Los Angeles Culture (and Beyond), which declared: "this collection screams punk rock, spoken word, jazz, hip hop, surreal, avant-garde, it’s all in here."
- Illuminated, U.S. Letter format (8.5" x 11")
- 300-page literary anthology
New Release! Illuminated Edition by Michael C Ford
$124.99 +$5.00 shipping
AVAILABLE NOW! Michael C Ford's new poetry volume IN CASE OF FLOOD STAND ON THIS BOOK IT'S DRY ENGLISH, is an "Illuminated Edition" featuring full-color graphic intensifiers throughout to compliment Ford's incredible poems.
- Hardbound U.S. Letter 8.5x11
- Designed by Yaryan
- Full-color volume with art from 25 contributors!
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New Release: Tripping with a Viper
$29.99 +$5 shipping
- Anne Marie Maxwell (aka Anne Murphy in the '50s and '60s) tells her autobiographical story of her adventures as a longtime lover and romantic, travel partner of Beat icon Neal Cassady “without fiction, facelifting or varnish."
- 124 pages with visual intensifiers to the memoir.
- U.S. Letter 8.5x11 Paperback
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UNDER THE TREE: 2ND ANNUAL ANTHOLOGY (2024)
$39.99 +$5.00 shipping
TREE ACADEMY anthology of poetry & prose (2024), edited by Michael C Ford.
This student volume contains short stories, meta-fiction, flash fiction, narrative novels in progress, pitch-paragraphs for screenplays, memoires, a cultural essay and narrative monologues created for theatre arts! With every page turn, there are graphic intensifiers accompanying the text -- designed by Daniel Yaryan.
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New Release! Born in Berkeley
$24.99 +$5 shipping
Lynn Rogers' Born In Berkeley is a coming-of-age story from the perspective of a young woman in the 1960s that picked up where the Beat Generation left off. A powerful novel based on a true story in the heart of a counterculture movement. An exclusive to Mystic Boxing Commission with cover art by Fitz.
- Trade Paperback
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New Release: The War Between
$20.00 +$5 shipping
- Exclusive film novelization paperback based on the screenplay by Ron Yungul!
- The story of two Americans representing a great political divide who must learn to trust one another and work toward a common goal: survival.
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New Release: Insurgent Imagination
$29.99 +$5 shipping
- Illuminated "Robert Branaman Edition" features the creative works of the late, Beat artist who was also an experimental filmmaker and Los Angeles poet.
- 122 pages with visual intensifiers to the poems, essays and perspectives on every spread.
- U.S. Letter 8.5x11 Paperback
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New Release: The Sparring Artists
$29.99 +$5 shipping
- Illuminated Special Edition
- Anthology features 138 contributors from the popular multi-media series Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts.
- Special Doug Knott Section
- 164 pages of poetry & prose combined with art and photographic intensifiers throughout.
- U.S. Letter 8.5x11 Paperback
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California Road Kill by GenXCore
$20.00 +$5 shipping
California Road Kill is the harrowing journey of three societal outliers marred by violence, homelessness and the residue of addiction. Its characters embark on a path both physical and spiritual, of psyche and soul, as they seek redemption from the past, present and future. From urban blight to coastal breezes, it is a story not only of renewal and reckoning, but of California itself..
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Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Omnibus
$65.00 +$5 shipping
- Deluxe, 608-page, hardcover edition
- Glorious art, poetry, narrative fiction, in-depth reviews, legacies, remembrances and the poetic chronicle of the SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS © multi-media poetry series.
- Groundbreaking compendium, contains 267 artistic contributors
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Under the Tree: A Tree Academy Anthology of Poetry & Prose
$24.99 includes shipping
- Short stories, meta-fiction, flash fiction, narrative novels in progress, pitch-paragraphs for screenplays, memoires, a cultural essay and narrative monologues created for theatre arts!
- Artwork throughout the edition!
- Edited by Michael C Ford
- Trade Paperback
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Sorcerers: Through Dimensions Infinite by Yaryan & Fitz
$89.99 +$5 shipping
- Exciting, illuminated, full-color edition by Yaryan & Fitz!
- 232 pages! The first complete volume of cosmic pulp poetry!
- Poetry by Yaryan/Artwork by Fitz!
- Introduction by Michael C Ford
- Hardbound U.S. Letter 8.5x11
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Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler by Jerry Kamstra
$20.00 +$5 shipping
The modern classic tale of Mexico and marijuana smuggling in the mid-1960s by novelist Jerry Kamstra!
- Illustrated 45th Anniversary Edition with artwork by Fitz!
- Introduction by Gerald Nicosia
- Trade Paperback
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Coming Soon! Pharmacy Psalms and Half-Life Hymns -- For Nothing
$75.00 +$5 shipping
Nelson Gary's astounding thousand-plus page Pharmacy Psalms megabook combines art of poetry with psychology and theology to open new pathway in therapeutic treatment of mental illness.
“Instead of seeing the literary movie, Nelson Gary invites you inside the theater of your own skull.”
—Harvey Kubernik, author of the liner notes to Allen Ginsberg’s Kaddish CD and Project Coordinator for The Jack Kerouac Collection Recordings.
Coming Soon! The Frisco Kid by Jerry Kamstra
San Francisco's as far-out as you can go in America without falling off. THE FRISCO KID is Jerry Kamstra's far-out novel of Edge City and the reckless, creative, insane bunch of artists, writers and hangers-on who spilled out their energies in tender bawdy celebration of a golden era in the life of sensation. The Frisco Kid lives and loves and deals with all the Beats, boppers, café loungers, winos, oddballs and dreamers who made North Beach in San Francisco a famous American place and time.
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NEW RELEASE ANTHOLOGY! POETRY, PROSE, ART +INTERVIEW!
INSURGENT IMAGINATION: ANNUAL #1 SPRING 2024
$29.99
($5.00 shipping)
- Insurgent Imagination is a literary arts anthology committed to defending the creative impulse. This illuminated "Robert Branaman Edition" contains artwork on every spread as visual intensifiers to the poems, essays and perspectives of over 40 creators. .
- The featured artist is the late Robert Branaman, who was a Beat artist, experimental filmmaker and poet.
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DELUXE HARDBOUND EDITION NOW AVAILABLE FOR $39.99 (Plus shipping) on EBAY or Direct from Publisher with Online Payment System applications: ZELLE, VENMO & PAYPAL.
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Features
SPARRING WITH BEATNIK GHOSTS
Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts (SWBG) is a multi-media poetry supershow that began in the basement of Li Po Lounge in San Francisco's Chinatown on August 23, 2008. The series has traversed California from Mill Valley to Venice -- hosting mystic boxing matches with all the bygone ghosts of literary history. Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts is the creation of poet, publisher and event organizer Daniel Yaryan. SWBG also spawned many volumes of literary/art anthologies collected by the Bancroft Library, UCLA, The Huntington Library and other special collections. Watch the 15th Anniversary show from 9/23/23 at Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA!
Click to Order Sparring With Beatnik Ghosts Anthologies on Ebay!
WEED: ADVENTURES OF A DOPE SMUGGLER -- by Jerry Kamstra
AVAILABLE NOW! CLICK HERE TO ORDER ON LULU.COM TODAY!
Jerry Kamstra's new classic is a tale of marijuana and marijuana smuggling but it is also about Mexico itself. What started out as a simple photographic expedition turned into a major smuggling operation involving a ton of marijuana and the hair-raising means used to bring the weed into the States. This absorbing story reads like an adventure novel -- but it's all true. Peer Amid Press and Mystic Boxing Commission bring you this special 45th Anniversary Edition with over six dozen photographs and never before seen illustrations by artist Fitz (AKA Mat Fitzsimmons).
Check out the rave review from Empty Mirror onlline magazine at the bottom of this page!
EVENT PRODUCTION AND BOOK PUBLISHERS
The Mystic Boxing Commission is dedicated to artists and their fight to be seen and heard! We promote artists, produce literary events and create masterworks from our in-house design department "Peer Amid Press." We're always in your corner. We publish artistic books of poetry, prose and anthologies. Contact Daniel Yaryan for more information.
KAMSTRA SPARRING ARCHIVE
The Kamstra Sparring Archive (AKA Sparchive) is part interactive museum, part art gallery and entirely a sanctuary for poetry, performance and visual art. The aim is artistic preservation, documentation and promotion of creative endeavors. The archive honors Jerry Kamstra, author of The Frisco Kid and Weed: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler (RIP: 1/2/35-11/26/19), The Archive is host to exclusive Sparring Artist Salons in the NoHo Arts District. Visit https://www.facebook.com/KamstraSparchive for updates or contact Daniel Yaryan for more details.
BOOK DESIGNERS
Peer Amid Press is the design department of the Mystic Boxing Commission with over three decades experience in producing the most beautiful editions possible.
Contact Daniel Yaryan via Facebook Messenger or email him for more information about services.
Reviews, Interviews & Articles
EMPTY MIRROR online magazine reviews the 45th Anniversary Edition of "WEED"
WEEDWEEK podcast interview discussion on "WEED: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler"
WEEDWEEK podcast interview discussion on "WEED: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler"
EMPTY MIRROR online literary magazine's Gregory Stephenson reviews the 45th Anniversary Edition of "WEED: ADVENTURES OF A DOPE SMUGGLER" by JERRY KAMSTRA. Click the button below to read the article...
WEEDWEEK podcast interview discussion on "WEED: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler"
WEEDWEEK podcast interview discussion on "WEED: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler"
WEEDWEEK podcast interview discussion on "WEED: Adventures of a Dope Smuggler"
WEEDWEEK hosts Donnell Alexander and Alex Halperin interview publisher Daniel Yaryan on "WEED: ADVENTURES OF A DOPE SMUGGLER" by JERRY KAMSTRA. Click button below to hear the podcast show and interview...
SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL article about JERRY KAMSTRA receiving lifetime achievement as "literary outlaw"
SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL article about JERRY KAMSTRA receiving lifetime achievement as "literary outlaw"
SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL article about JERRY KAMSTRA receiving lifetime achievement as "literary outlaw"
SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL writer Wallace Baine wrote a feature story about novelist JERRY KAMSTRA receiving lifetime achievement award for 'literary outlaw' life. (Photo by Dan Coyro/Sentinel) Click button below to read the Sentinel article...
SantaCruz.com article about LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI DAY hosted/produced by YARYAN
SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL article about JERRY KAMSTRA receiving lifetime achievement as "literary outlaw"
SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL article about JERRY KAMSTRA receiving lifetime achievement as "literary outlaw"
SANTA CRUZ WEEKLY writer Stephen Kessler wrote a feature story about LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI DAY in Santa Cruz hosted and produced by YARYAN. (Photo by Christopher Felver) Click button below to read the Santa Cruz Weekly article...