Customer Reviews

Elegy for Bob Kaufman

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This deeply heartfelt work, a succinct and thankfully neo unself-righteous lamentation by Neeli Cherkovski to and for his for late north beach, san francisco, comrade-in-poesy bob "Abommunist Manifesto" kaufman.This is Cherkovski's finest creative effort, at least among those of Cherk's works this reviewer has studied. Cherkovski, biographer of giants Ferlinghetti, Winans, and Bukowski, this time sets aside the journalistic and laborious near drudgeries of biographer toil, instead transcending the literary common-place to break bread with the gods, specifically those gods who specialize in living poetry's highest calling. I mean this time out Cherkovski is Inspired! Nothing obtuse about this new work; nothing hacklike; nothing testy nor negative nor put down-y.Kaufman was really a close friend and is so sorely missed by Cherkovski a reader will have a tough time keeping eyes dry. One must wonder about the amount of affection he felt for his former roommate, charles bukowski, in comparison to the genuine love, admiration, deep abiding respect both creatively and as a simple pal for a pal, and now sorrow for his departed walk-mate an laugh partner, for so many fun filled moments of joy, laughs, hilarious revelries and ribald north beach shared experiences...Buy this great book for your library, for those shelves you maintain the very best of cogent spiritual works packed with holy sacred precious elegaic renderings of our master surviving poet/scribes - if this one doesn't grab at least a Nobel nomination for poetry - I'll astro- project to stockholm myself to beat on their ignorant and yes illiterate doors! Cherkovski has dominated Bay area literary activity for twenty years, mentoring his near peers gregory corso, michael McClure, and especially star student harold "hotel nirvana" norse, to new heights of literary success - without Cherkovski's calm and enlightened hand, such writers would have struggled so much more to bring lucid cohesion to their new stanzas.This elegy will last if we last; a work to bring walls of bigotry down as long as hate sticks around - FOR AS LONG AS THERE REMAINS ONE GOOD EAR ON EARTH THIS ELEGY WILL BE HEARD AND LIVE FOREVER. Amen

I read this book for the first time nearly ten years ago. At the time I was relatively unfamiliar with Kaufman's work. I read it for the second time just last week. I didn't stop until I had finished the entire text.

Neeli Cherkovski brings Bob Kaufman to life in this book. The poems give you a sense of what it was like to be with Bob. They reveal the words that he spoke, the things that he did, the way that he was. They dine together, sing together, morn together, roam San Francisco together. The poems express Neeli's visions of Bob as he sails across the bay dispersing his ashes into the sea. I think better than any other text I have read, these poems capture the spirit of Bob Kaufman. The best method for this is not a standard biography, but poetry itself.

Cherkovski's poems in this regard are superior to much that I have seen. I have glanced at other biographies written as poems, by Ed Sanders say, and have not been as impressed. Sometimes these poems feel like they are just biographies with line breaks. This is not the case at all with Cherkovski. Each poem stands alone. There is not even an attempt to compose anything resembling a biography. Yet when the elegy is said and done, we feel like we know Bob Kaufman substantially better.

"the truth is I'm not fully reconciled
to his death or his life, Gregory Corso
said he had the biggest ego
in the Beat Generation, I say
he was maddening behind
a veil of crazy sainthood/I mean
the man sang, he wrote
clear jazz poems, clean childhood
memories that flow
into the delta land
deep elegies to Charlie Parker
and bumpy roads
into the arc of April"

"Bobby found his town
an exquisite maze
of simple facts such as
a fast escape to Chinatown eateries
or a quick exchange in the local park
glances meant to be imprinted
on the brain"

If you're not familiar with Bob Kaufman's work, these poems may not resonate as strongly.But if you know Bob Kaufman, they really sing, and come to life, and you will probably whip through them as quickly as I did. Cherkovski has succeeded again. In memory of Bob Kaufman, a definite 5 stars.