The View from down here ticle on The Making of the Common Book, gives an interesting perspective on a community workshop that teaches how to create a book; Joe Farley’s story, At The Station, shows that he’s a multi-talented writer; new-comer Jesse James Kennedy’s prose piece, The Suburbs, gives the reader a bit of stream-of-conscious writing; Marie C. Lecrivain’s story, What if Maria Gorreti Wanted Access to Birth Control?, is thought provoking; longtime friend/ patron of LUMMOX, Mike Meloan’s microfiction Mr. Jeeter is another one of his quirky “slice of life” pieces; John Macker profiles Colorado poet Tony Moffeit’s “Rattlesnake Mojo”; new member of the LUMMOX family, Mike Mahoney, attempts to make sense out of language in 33 Ways to “Make Common Words Uncommon Again” (an idea put forth by Lawrence Ferlinghetti); Linda Singer’s prose piece, A Masked Woman Goes for a Walk – life during Covid, right? Rick Smith, the harmonica tooting, word-slinging LUMMOX alumnus, details the time he and his parents were Snowed in With Carl Sandburg (American Poet – 1878-1967). Nancy Shiffrin (last year’s ACM Contest Winner) reviews The Collected Poems of Sylvia Plath. People often ask me why I don’t have themes for the various iterations of the annual LUMMOX, and I tell them that a “theme” develops organically in every issue (even the ones that have a theme). This is issue is no different. Apart from the obvious 600 pound covid spore floating in the corner, waiting to insert itself into the international conversation (PUT ON YER DAMN MASK!!), there’s definitely a Covid – 19 component, not to mention that spray-tanned precedent who has set Amerika back a hundred years or more!!! WHY WON’T HE JUST SHUT UP?! Gone But Not Forgotten Lyn Lifshin, the self-styled ‘Queen of the Small Press’ left the planet this year. She was
10 •
Number Nine / 2020
widely published (LUMMOX Press published a 2 volume set of Little Red Books, The Barbie Poems, back in 1999). I still have copies. Rudolfo Anaya, A Founding Father Of Chicano Literature. Michael McClure, one of the last beat poets out of the Bay Area, tapped out earlier this year.
Ken Greenley, committed suicide in Denver, Colorado. I had communicated with him about a week before his departure, but had no idea what was really going on with him. Steve Dalachinsky died at a NYC poetry reading, I suppose that’s a good death for a poet! L.A. poetry chanteuse, Yvone de la Vega, did loopty loops into outer space and was gone! She was a pistol!
Harry Wilkens passed away this July. Harry and I worked on his book, Piss Talks. His style was raw and visceral. Milner Place, an English poet & teacher, sailed into the sunset for the last time in late May. LET US BEGIN...