"We didn't get paid and i know the publisher is making bread off this book and i am sure the editor is, too."

 

THE EAST SIDE SCENE 

Allen De Loach, Editor 

A Doubleday Anchor Book 

$2.50 

 

 

This is an anthology of poetry that came out of the East Side of New York City in the early '60's Some very fine poets are included: Ginsberg, Carol Berge, Peter Orlovsky, Will Inman, Diane Wakowski, Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, etc. My poetry is included for i was one of them. We sat and drank coffee and sneaked beer and wine into the readings at the Le Metro on Second Avenue near Tenth Street. It was a meeting place for us poets and those who came to listen. Out-of-town poets like Lawrence Ferlinghetti and William Burroughs came by to say hello. 

When we weren't having readings we would meet one an-other on the street or at the Gem Spa and we would talk about our plans. We had readings at apartments, in alleys, in the parks, while walking through the snow of Avenue B. It was poetry, and the Puerto-Ricans and the Jews and the Polish all got used to our rantings. The police didn't bother us. We read our poems to audiences who really enjoyed it. Bob Dylan would occasionally come to Le Metro and listen to us. When i first met Dylan around '63, we later went to a reading at Le Metro. This is the place where Ginsberg first really got into his musical/poetry. This is where the FUGS originated. This was our connection. This was where Allen Katzman got ideas for his East Village Other which wasn't published yet. 

As i said, the anthology is based around the Le Metro and its poets. There are a couple of people in the book who do not belong. They are fine poets but they didn't take part that much with us. Maybe they read there a couple of times, but they weren't East Side poets. Not that you had to live on the East Side near Fifth Street. Jerome Rothenberg lived uptown, Diane Wakowski lived uptown, Gerry Malanga lived uptown. They were still part of us. Still East Side poets. But Louis Zukofsky and Walter Lowenfels, as good as they can be, did not belong in this anthology. How about Spencer Holst, Jackson Mac Low and Jack Micheline? They were vital parts of us and they are not in the collection. Jack Micheline is perhaps the finest of the city poets. Not the finest poet in the city, but the finest city poet. He knows every pigeon and every pissport. 

Editor Allen De Loach must have worked hard to get this bunch together again. Most of them are scattered. They all are. i was the first of the group to leave New York City for the country. Most of them are probably gone from Second Avenue now. For the couple of faults this book has, it is still a damn good collection. The thing that gets me and several others in it is: WHERE THE HELL IS OUR MONEY? We didn't get paid and i know the publisher is making bread off this book and i am sure the editor is, too. Don't poets have to eat too? i think the closing line of a poem by Tuli Kupferberg would sum this up: 

When a bird sang out at a poetry readin... a poet killed it. 

    —George Montgomery

WIN magazine, May 1972