Tag Archives: Allen Ginsberg

John Burroughs: The Anti-Santa Naturalist

(Originally published in the June 11, 1998 Woodstock Times.) By 1912, John Burroughs, a celebrated and opinionated author on the sublime importance of nature for one’s personal character, had noticed the birth of the automobile. And he didn’t like it. … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on John Burroughs: The Anti-Santa Naturalist

Walt Whitman, an American, One of the Roughs, a Kosmos

(In 2003 The Country and Abroad published this appreciation. Though we no have Laura Bush to kick around, we will always have Whitman.) I teach straying from me, yet who can stray from me? I follow you whoever you are … Continue reading

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Walt Whitman, an American, One of the Roughs, a Kosmos

Sam Shepard Describes Bob Dylan’s Hands

In 1975, Sam Shepard accompanied Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue through New England and subsequently published his impressions in Rolling Thunder Logbook. Lately, I’ve been fascinated by Dylan’s early Woodstock years when he hung out at the Café Espresso (now … Continue reading

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sam Shepard Describes Bob Dylan’s Hands

Hart Crane Hears the River

For years, I’ve been mesmerized by Hart Crane’s poetry as dazzling verbal displays that suggest stories lurking within their densities but always favor ecstatic language over explaining what’s going on. To read his poems aloud is to hear jazz pouring … Continue reading

Posted in Nature Writing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Hart Crane Hears the River

Beat Reunion, By Michael Perkins

(A reminiscence written in 1996.) The life of Herbert Huncke, who died this year at the age of 81, was celebrated by his friends and admirers on a gray day in late November at the Friends Meeting House in Manhattan. … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Beat Reunion, By Michael Perkins

A Short History of Poetry in Woodstock, 1873-2008

(Published in the Woodstock Times, April 17, 2008) By Michael Perkins Part II While much of the general population may prefer undergoing root canal work to attending a poetry reading, fortunately for local poets there are people who freely chose … Continue reading

Posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A Short History of Poetry in Woodstock, 1873-2008

Visiting Wheeler Hill

In late June I drove more than four hours due west through the Catskills and across the southern tier of western New York to visit Michael and Carolyn Czarnecki of FootHills Publishing at their unpainted house in the back corner … Continue reading

Posted in Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Visiting Wheeler Hill