HYDRA WATERFRONT
For Harold Norse
yes the water is perfect and
still, the Flying Dolphin
skids on the Gulf and slow
only moments before entering
the harbor and gliding
to the waterfront, it’s a rugged
land of rocks and whitewashed
facades
on Hydras the Venetian
palaces give supplication
to Helios, Jackie O visited
while I was there, and
your pal Leonard Cohen
saw “a bird on a wire” which
landed in a song, there was
the British expatriate who
painted his way into an alcoholic
dream. . .
no, I haven't been there
for seven yeas, and you
were put into a home
in Hayes Valley, assigned
to a room that looks out on a tree
and you loved to wander,
the attendants took care
to meet your needs
I'd come to see you
in advanced age,
eyes shining and
poems burning up
in a drawer, we had to
walk the waterfront
and feel the breeze
on Hydra once
I made love to a
young man from
Salonika, (Hal, he had
dark, hairy legs).
we spent five days in a room
by the port, the chubby
matron who brought
us food would giggle,
knowing. . .
I loved your poems
about every Hydra
sprinkled over
many lands,
your shades of
sensibility flowing
on the wharf, awake
like a seabird
cawing at the action
on the waterfront
you told me
about the donkey boy
who was hung
like a horse, was
he the wizened old man
I saw gathering
memories on the
stone pier jutting into
the harbor?
I miss you
more than I miss
you, I guess it is
a love without
measure, you
were the man
who showed me
at least one way
out of solitude
and back to the self
I picture you
on Hydra in the 50s, sitting
poised to write
of the people
below your window, the
donkeys braying,
crowds milling
across the water
in the harbor over time
down to those catacombs
below the poem
© Neeli Cherkovski
9 June 09
Neeli Cherkovski is a longtime contributor to the West Coast literary scene.
Emerging from the Los Angeles underground of the Sixties, Cherkovski, is an applauded poet,
critic and literary biographer. Neeli was awarded the PEN-Oakland Josephine Miles National
Literary Award.
His books of poetry include the recent"Leaning Against Time", a new memoir is of his life and times
among the American poets of the late 20th century.
Neeli Cherekovski's other books are Elegy for Bob Kaufman, Animal, and the chapbook Naming the Nameless,
two acclaimed biographies, Bukowski: A Life and Ferlinghetti: A Biography; his book, Whitman's Wild Children
(a collection of critical memoirs), has become an underground classic. In the late 1960s Cherkovski co-edited
the poetry anthology Laugh Literary and Man the Humping Guns with Charles Bukowski.
Cherkovski has long been associated the American beat and post-beat poets.
Since 1975, Neeli Cherkovski has lived and worked in San Francisco.
ELEGY for MAX SCHWARTZ by Neeli Cherkovski
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