Customer Reviews

San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets

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When David Meltzer's "The San Francisco Poets" appeared in 1971, I somehow stumbled across a copy & promptly lost myself in its pages, amazed & dazzled by the way these poets opened up about their lives, their art, their experiences of the world. I simply hadn't known how rich & complex the inner life of the poet really was -- not any living ones, anyway. While they provided plenty of ideas for me to wrestle with, what made a lasting impact was their unfettered mode of expression. So this was what a genuine human being could be like!

Now, decades later, that book of interviews has been reissued, with the original interviews not only expanded upon but followed up, and new interviews added as well. The result is a volume that spans half a century or more, offering both the immediate responses to then-current events, and reflections on them much later in life. From Kenneth Rexroth to Lawrence Ferlinghetti to Michael McClure & more, we're invited to listen in on fascinating, challenging conversation, filled with anecdote, social commentary, personal memories, and a fair amount of hard-won wisdom.

While certainly of interest to both budding poets & historians of the recent decades past, what makes this collection continually relevant is the questions it raises for each of us: How do we live? What do we cherish? What gives us meaning? What is the place & purpose of art? In short, it makes us think about who we are & what we want to be -- not in terms of worldly "success" but as whole human beings. As such, it's well worth reading & highly recommended!

(As a rueful footnote to how times have changed, I bought my old copy of "The San Francisco Poets" from a drugstore spinner rack. You won't find that happening today, alas!)

Interviews with makers of San Francisco's "beat scene" are captured by Metzer, himself a Beat generation artist, in San Francisco Beat, a oustanding and informative collection of recent interviews which relate what happened. Ferlinghetti, Everson, Rexroth and other major literary figures of the times reflect on experiences and philosophy.