A Poetry Reading with Neeli Cherkovski & Clark Coolidge

Neeli Cherkovski is the author of many books of poetry, including his most recent collection, Elegy for My Beat Generation (Lithic Press). He was the coeditor of Anthology of L.A. Poets (with Charles Bukowski) and Cross-Strokes: Poetry between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Cherkovski also wrote biographies of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Charles Bukowski, as well as the critical memoir Whitman’s Wild Children (1988). He has lived in San Francisco since 1974.

Born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, experimental poet and jazz musician Clark Coolidge has been connected to both the Language movement and the New York School. His poetry utilizes syntactical and sonic patterns to engage, and generate, meaning. In a 1968 poetics statement, he noted, “Words have a universe of qualities other than those of descriptive relation: Hardness, Density, Sound-Shape, Vector-Force, & Degrees of Transparency/Opacity.” Coolidge’s numerous collections of poetry include his Selected Poems 1962-1985.