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Poets in New York, 4 of 6
No Eyes: Lester Young by David Meltzer, Black Sparrow Books
David Meltzer’s No Eyes: Lester Young
is one of the most masterful, joyous, life-affirming books of poems on music (and IN music) published in the United States.
It is only one of some fifty-odd titles that Meltzer has published in his 72 years. A serious musician (on the guitar), an anthologist, a magazine editor, a legendary performer, a poet and essayist, Meltzer can say, like Chaucer’s Wife of Bath, “That I have had my world as in my tyme.” His troubadour spirit and his precise, swooping, intervallic lyricism energize American poetry and keep it tuned to the body. No Eyes: Lester Young
came out in 2000 from Black Sparrow. Meltzer’s most recent title is David’s Copy
, a selected poems (Penguin, 2005).
Posted in Uncategorized on Monday, October 13th, 2008 by Forrest Gander.
Comment (1)
Forrest, these are both great books–thanks for mentioning them here. David’s book “Beat Thing” is also terrific–one of the great meditations on the bop-and-bomb era of Cold War U. S. culture from the heat-mind of one of its greatest writers….