Baseball And Writing by Marianne Moore
When the Dick Mac (alive!) virtual gallery is opened, an item that will be displayed is a signed lithograph of a Marianne Moore poem and a Laurence Scott drawing.
Marianne Moore is a poet of great stature. The word august comes to mind when thinking of her place in American history. Moore wrote about seascapes, safaris, flowers, famous men, baseball; the simpler pleasures of a simple life. Her style is near perfect! Technically, Moore is a poet of the highest stature.
On the other hand, Patti Smith, is an American writer whose work in the 1970s broke ground in a manner totally dissimilar to Moore. As an artist, she was the lead singer of The Patti Smith Group, published a number of manuscripts, became a star (in the Warholian sense of the word), and in her writing, brought the subjects of drugs, violence, homosexuality, vice, fear, and stardom to the fore. Is Smith a poet? You decide.
John Wieners is a Boston poet who began publishing in the late fifties. He was an original American beat poet whom the late Allen Ginsburg referred to as "the most important American poet of his time." Wieners still lives in Boston. A volume of his work, "The Journal Of John Wieners Is To Be Called 707 Scott Street for Billie Holiday," was published in 1996, by Sun & Moon Press, Los Angeles.
Mr. Wieners' poem reprinted here is from "The Hotel Wentley Poems," published in 1958.
Additional poems will appear at this site.
All work published at Dick Mac (alive!)'s American Poetry web site is published without permission; and forgiveness and mercy are begged. Other poets who will appear here in the future include David Emerson Smith, Walt Whitman, Freddie Greenfield, and others. If you would like to add work to this site, please contact Dick Mac (alive!) via this mail link.
Enjoy.