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| Frank and Claudia |
Everything that's ever been said to me about Frank Samperi was always out of respect and affection for a poet who'd been unjustly disprized in his own day. I have Ed Baker to thank for introducing the name to me a few years back, Samperi mentioned within the context of a discussion about the Italo-American experience. In Ed's estimation Samperi
is the Italo-American poet. But he was also the orphaned poet temperamentally unsuited to crowds and affiliations; a lover of spiritual Truth who'd served his country in Korea and paid a terrible price in terms of its post-traumatic effects: the poet with the purest lyrical heart heartlessly relegated, as he was bound to be in the Objectivist age of Louis Zukofsky, to virtual non-existence. His allegiance to Dante made him all but ignored. I've never known a poet bowed as low by the hard reality of an almost total literary abandonment.
And I've never been more deeply moved, at the same time, by the filial duties of a daughter who's given considerable time, energies and devotion to the legacy of a parent's both published and unpublished works: even moved myself to write my own literary biography of Frank Samperi. I am happy to say I'll be attending the 'Trilogy' book launch in March at
Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA where I'll join Claudia and friends in what will be a "Frank Samperi celebration". The launch of the new Skysill Press 'Trilogy' will take place on 10 March, Sunday at 4:00 pm. Please see Claudia's
blog for more details.
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| Beyond Baroque |
7 comments:
Samperi's work may have been disprized, but he was well-published. That's hardly neglect.
I was never much moved by his poetry, but then I always was, as you infer here, a part of the "Louis Zukofsky" tribe--though I was never as impressed with his "A" as many were; I liked his lyrics better.
If you're passing through the Bay Area on your way south, do drop a line and maybe we can have coffee.
Curtis,
I will be in Santa Monica from March 9 to 13(of my March break); Sunday March 10th is date of the Trilogy launch.
A coffee and chat sounds good. Hope to see you there!
Physical distance and obligations at home prevent me from being there in person but I'll be there in spirit to celebrate the occasion.
Vassilis,
one of these days I'm going to try holding a 'video conference' poetry reading of my own. I've seen it done in the high school classroom.
Then you can be present both spiritually and 'virtually':))
make mine black
w/ no sugar ....
well , maybe, a dash of schnapps
and
what was that March date ? the 10th anniversary of Cid's death ?
the first published piece of Frank's that I ever saw / read was in two SHUTTLE issues about 1973 that i was also in. was in a 1973 issue.
I was "captured" by his (poems') form and that
regardless of or in spite of MY points-of-view OR understandings OR preferences
the poetry "worked"
:still does
I hear you, Ed
Samperi and Corman were so close it'll also be in some respects a Corman celebration. He was very instrumental in the original Mushinsha publications (via Eric Sackheim), for example.
Corman was his best (meaning most sympathetic & intelligent) reader...
We should all have a Corman in our lives.
if I was there and if the opportunity presented itself,
I'd read Cid's essay THROUGH
especially the notes to Cid from FS in 1971
included as an Appendix
I'd read it and not care too much about who I bored.
this essay is included in AT THEIR WORD
seems to me that the habit of judging things via
"likes and dislikes" is what has been corrupting
what's been left to us of The Humanities since The Enlightenment:
Science and Reason rules !?
Breaking/dropping this habit ain't easy.
Hugs to Claudia from me via you when there...
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