Meltzer, David

Broadside: A Poem For My Wife

San Francisco, CA: Maya, 1969. First Printing. Single Sheet. “I’m in my room writing / speaking to myself / & I hear you / move down the hallway / to water your plants” begins this broadside (whose end I refuse to spoil, and which measures appx. 10” x 14 ½” ) by David Meltzer (1937-2016), the youngest poet to be included in Don Allen’s momentous anthology of 1960, “The New American Poetry, 1945-1960” (New York, NY: Grove Press, 1960). Meltzer, a San Francisco-based poet who’d informally apprenticed to (and surrounded himself with the likes of) the elusive-&-maximally-visionary American artist, publisher, & filmmaker Wallace Berman and his “Semina Circle.” That circle also (importantly and impactfully) included a much-younger Jack Hirschman, who’d yet to be consumed by the ideological, partisan fervor which almost wholistically consumed his life from the 1970s onward. It was Hirschman who most impactfully set Meltzer onto studies and fascinations that would later manifest in his study (& publishing) of various occult literatures, including Hermetic and Kabbalah-focused texts in the 1970s under the “Tree Books, Texts & Documents” imprint. As noted Second San Francisco Renaissance poet, Thomas Rain Crowe relays in “Starting from San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books,” Meltzer replicated the sort of mentorship offered him by Berman and Hirschman in an act of grateful reciprocation best characterized by the eagerly participatory role he played when dealing with the (then-young) poets of the SSFR (of which Crowe and friends such as Neeli Cherkovski, Philip Daughtry, and Ken Wainio were a part). This broadside, published as “Broadside Two” by the mysteriously titled “Maya” (an outlet, if Your Devoted Managing Curator’s memory serves him well, helmed by noted publisher-&-friend of many-a San Francisco Renaissance poet, Jack Shoemaker of ‘Counterpoint Press’ fame) & likely designed (& printed) by Clifford Burke of the Cranium Press. Unfolded single sheet: the first and only printing of this increasingly evasive Meltzer broadside. In strong near fine condition with minute shelf-wear & a select few tiny exhibits of bumping to fine-edges & corners of recto & verso; age-typical toning/yellowing (which forms a matte-of-sorts around the poem that, to be clear, affects neither illustration nor text) at/around all fine-edges of broadside (see image). Surely, if said condition-related characteristic’s (evidently) neat and uniform status is to be taken as indicator or clue, the effect is quite likely the result of having been safely framed for many years, previously by previous owner-collector. Near Fine. [Item #5185]

Price: $25.00