Reviewed: 1-2-2021 ...internationally performing and leading American poet... |
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"...so there is |
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poet musician singer writer |
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Ray McNiece |
Ray and Major Poets |
Ray and Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Kerouac, Robert Bly |
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Click LINKS right below to go to the poet on this page: Yevtushenko Ferlinghetti Kerouac House Bly
The
McNiece and Yevtushenko Tour "As an American poet accustomed to meager readership and small audiences for public readings, I traveled to Russia with Yevgeny Yevtushenko in July of 2001 anticipating, if not the legendary soccer-stadium size crowds of the “thaw,” at least a deeper and more widespread appreciation for poetry by everyday people. Though the flame of poetry has been somewhat dampened by the advent of consumer/pop culture, the average Russian still has a connection to poetry that can only be called soulful. The tour proved to be an arduous – the Russian infrastructure is slowly crumbling – but wondrous journey that revealed how pervasively poetry imbues the national character. After all, for nearly a century the poets were, in the face of the official social realist truth, speaking the simple human truths – the truth between the lines. For the people that truth was as sustaining as good brown bread. One can live by it. They have not forgotten that. The
occasion of our tour was Yevtushenko’s annual birthday performance at
the Moscow Polytech and the opening of the Poet’s House, a museum in
his childhood home at the Siberian crossroads of Zima Junction.
Our cast included a international line-up of poets, critics, and
Yevtushenkologists representing Poland, France, Nicaragua, the United
States and the whole of Russia from St. Petersburg to Kamchatka.
Over the course of two weeks I participated in a dozen readings, four tv/radio
interviews and a panel discussion, “Poetry in the 21st Century.”
The one constant on the trip can be summed up by
Siberia: Yevtushenko with his hard hat, Ray on guitar, both performing "The Workers' Song" ("I ain't got no work.."), a protest song on the LTV steel plant closing.
[ back to top ] Ray's "RESIDENCY" at the Jack Kerouac House, Florida From his book... (ray's poem below) "I like too many things and
get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another
till I drop. This is the night, what it does to you. I had nothing to
offer anybody except my own confusion."
Jack Kerouac: Jack Kerouac died in Florida in 1969 at the age of 47. He came to represent to the world "the Beat Generation", a mantle he loathed, writing in the late 40's, the 50's, and 60's. A poet, a writer, a wanderer, a traveler, he crossed the country and he crossed the world. Friend and compatriot of Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, and William S. Burroughs, he is most famous for the gem of "On the Road", written in only 3 weeks, coming to fame and attention in 1957. Other works of note include: The Dharma Bums (praised by Henry Miller), The Subterraneans, Desolation Angels, Big Sur. From his modest beginnings in Lowell, Massachusetts, he has risen to the level of legend.
Ray in the living room, by a poster of Jack... [ back to top ] Letter Left on the Porch of the Kerouac Houseby Ray McNiece, Copyright 2002 So as I sit still on the
porch one word as small as the
seed I was poor when I came here But there is no end, only the
golden what would Walt Whitman say, The same meat wheel spun
them What good that teletype
roll
[ back to top ] Ray with Lawrence Ferlinghetti in Italy and with Italian Poets, and the Tour
Ray McNiece with Robert Bly Featured speakers Ray McNiece and
poet extraordinaire Robert Bly
[ back to top ] |
Ray McNiece |
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poet musician singer writer |
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Telephone: 440-918-0878 |
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