About the Poets & Crew

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photo by Jean Bartlett

David Meltzer was raised in Brooklyn during the war years. He performed on radio and early TV on the Horn & Hardart Children’s Hour. He was exiled to L.A. at 16, and at 17  enrolled in an ongoing academy with artists Wallace Berman, George Herms, Robert Alexander, and Cameron. David migrated to San Francisco in 1957 for higher education with peers & maestros like Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, Joanne Kyger, Diane DiPrima, Michael McClure, Lew Welch, Philip Whalen, Jack Hirschman, and a cast of thousands all living extraordinary ordinary lives.  His Beat Thing, La Alameda Press, 2004, won the Josephine Miles PEN Award,  2005. He was editor and   interviewer for San Francisco Beat: Talking With The Poets, City Lights, 2001. With Steve Dickison, David co-edits Shuffle Boil, a magazine devoted to music in all its appearances & disappearances. 2005 saw the publication of David’s Copy: The Selected Poems of David Meltzer by Viking/Penguin, a collection spanning over forty years of work. It paints a vivid portrait of Meltzer’s life as a poet, through poems taken from thirty of his previous books of poetry. With a versatile style and playful tone, Meltzer offers his unique vision of civilization with a range of juxtapositions from Jewish mysticism and everyday life to jazz and pop culture. His website is at Meltzerville.com.

David Meltzer reading in Petaluma, CA from ROCKPILE on Vimeo.

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photo by Terri Carrion

Michael Rothenberg is a poet, songwriter, and editor of Big Bridge magazine. His poetry books include Man/Woman, a collaboration with Joanne Kyger, The Paris Journals (Fish Drum Press),   Monk Daddy (Blue Press), and Unhurried Vision (La Alameda/University of New Mexico Press). His poems have been published widely in small press publications including, 88: A Journal of Contemporary American Poetry, Berkeley Poetry Review, Exquisite Corpse, First Intensity, Fish Drum, Fulcrum, Golden Handcuffs Review, House Organ, Otoliths, Prague Literary Review, Tricycle, Vanitas, Zyzzyva, JACK, Jacket, and others. He is also author of the novel Punk Rockwell. Rothenberg’s 2005 CD collaboration with singer Elya Finn was praised by poet David Meltzer as “fabulous-all [the] songs sound like Weimar Lenya & postwar Nico, lushly affirmative at the same time being edged w/ cosmic weltschmertz. An immensely tasty production.” He is also editor for the Penguin Poet series, which includes selected works of Philip Whalen, Joanne Kyger, David Meltzer, and Ed Dorn.  He has recently completed the Collected Poems of Philip Whalen for Wesleyan University Press.


Michael Rothenberg reading in Petaluma, CA from ROCKPILE on Vimeo

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Photo by Ira Cohen

Terri Carrión was conceived in Venezuela and born in New York to a Galician mother and Cuban father. She grew up in Los Angeles where she spent her youth skateboarding and slam-dancing. Terri Carrión earned her MFA at Florida International University in Miami, where she taught Freshman English and Creative Writing, edited and designed the graduate literary magazine Gulfstream, taught poetry to High School docents at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami and started a reading series at the local Luna Star Café. In her final semester at FIU, she was Program Director for the Study Abroad Program, Creative Writing in Dublin, Ireland.

Her poetry, fiction, non-fiction and photography has been published in many print magazines as well as online, including The Cream City Review, Hanging Loose, Pearl, Penumbra, Exquisite Corpse, Mangrove, Kick Ass Review, Exquisite Corpse, Jack, Mipoesia, Dead Drunk Dublin, and Physik Garden among others. Her collaborative poem with Michael Rothenberg, “Cartographic Anomaly” was published in the anthology, Saints of Hysteria, A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry and her chapbook “Lazy Tongue” was published by D Press in the summer of 2007. Her most recent projects includes collaborating on a trilingual Galician Anthology, (from Galician to Spanish to English) and co-editing an online selection of the bi-lingual anthology of Venezuelan women writers, Profiles of Night, both to appear in late August, on BigBridge.org., for which she is assistant editor and art designer. Currently, she is learning how to play the accordion.

Terri will be documenting ROCKPILE on the road, uploading photos, video and audio to the blog, as well as participating in poetry readings and other events connected to ROCKPILE.

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Ziggy is an adopted wackydoodle. He enjoys dancing and singing to the accordion.  His favorite poems are  “Early Spring” by Philip Whalen and “Bark, a Polemic” by David Meltzer.

Update: After much consideration and searching for kennels and doggie day care, all the logistics, twists and turns,  Terri and I have decided that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to try to bring Ziggy along. Due to our hectic schedule on the road, we would have to check him into kennels/daycare often, all around the country, and we feel we would be asking for trouble. There is no way to screen all these places sufficiently. Think about it, 5 days in each major city, that’s like 35 days in the kennel and very little time with us. Why bring him?  We would be running to appointments and breakfasts and lunch and dinner and we would be leaving him behind all the time. We are sad to leave Ziggy, but relieved at this decision. We will miss him! Fortunately, a good friend will stay in our house while we are away and she likes Ziggy and will take care of him here at the house. (Chiqui, our other dog, will go stay at his friends house in Cazadero).  So,  Ziggy will be safe and comfy at home with lots of attention all day. But Ziggy (and Chiqui) will be with us in spirit (if he wants). Okay, whew, what a relief. It was looking like a ASPC nightmare. Maybe I will start sleeping better. We will sure to bring pictures of our totem and call him every night!

2 comments

  1. […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by hideoutchicago and desigrrl, desigrrl. desigrrl said: Hideout tonight with Dan Godston & Friends… and Rockpile poets – http://bit.ly/2OOYiS […]

  2. […] ROCKPILE Pre-amble Pt. 2 with David Meltzer, Michael Rothenberg, Terri Carrion, and The Rabbles, Leah Lubin, Terry Adams, Natascha Bruckner, Camincha, Andrew Mayer, Nancy […]

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