Moe, H. David

Our Wings Are Pregnant Seesaws (Playscript)

San Francisco, CA: Privately Printed, 2001. First Printing. “Here’s an interesting and unique man and poet if there ever was one. I knew David well and spent a lot of time with and around him during the 70s. I even took a trip with him to France in 2007 to do a reading tour for the Baby Beat Generation Book…Moe was the wild card in the whole scene. His experimental poetry defied criticism, if not logic. His first book, Plug in the Electric Dictionary, is the perfect way to describe his poetry…Long pages of long lines chock full of disconnected words or short phrases. A cascading litany of words that in the page made no sense, but when heard read orally (and only Moe could read his poems properly) would actually create emotions or resonances that spoke to the listener. Images would pop out of the crowd of words and everyone would relate to different images personally. His poems were a potpourri of sounds and rhythms and made-up words that could be as comical as they could be disturbing. Even though many people thought he was simply insane and couldn't string a proper sentence together, David knew what he was doing and took great pains in choosing his words and in stringing words together for various effects. In that sense he wasn’t a lot different from Dylan Thomas and how they both approached the compositional process of forging their poems…He was older (although you wouldn't have known it at the time) than most of us younger poets and he did know and had hung with Kerouac and Cassady and that wild bunch; he had a true-to-life jump-start on the rest of us “Babies.” But he rarely spoke of these associations…After most of us had moved out of San Francisco and to other parts of the state or country, David stayed there and with his roots–which were in San Francisco. He took over the editorship of Beatitude Press, publishing books of his own poetry as well as books by such poets as Ken Wainio. He also took over the mantle from myself as Director of San Francisco Poetry Festival and kept that event going for a few more years as an annual event. So, he was an editor and an organizer right up to the end of his life…”--Thomas Rain Crowe, Thomas Rain Crowe Archive, pg 61. H.D. Moe, a.k.a., David Moe (1937-2013) was an American poet deeply fascinated with surrealism and a core, if not slightly older, member of the Second San Francisco Renaissance/Baby Beat Generation. His poetic activities included publishing Lovelights, the Erotic Poetry/Art Newspaper of San Francisco (at one time the most widely-distributed poetry publication in the world); curating two art galleries; and, in 1978, coordinating the San Francisco Poetry Festival. He published over 30 books of poetry, which include Ozone Allah (1978), The Logic of Snowflakes (1979), Quarks Heart (1980), Immortal Amebas Jigsawpuzzle Electron Gambling Hong Kong—The Cup Lands On The Saucer (1980), and Muse News (City Lights, 1988). Living in Berkeley, CA, he participated in numerous poetry readings throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, contributed to Beatitude Press and edited the Berkeley Review of Books. He also published a book of Utopian fantasy, Royal Poetopia and the Wild Law Civilization. His death brought forth a spontaneous outpouring of poems, memories, stories & commentaries from the San Francisco poetry community. Offered today is the 2001 play Our Wings Are Pregnant Seesaws. A bizarre, surrealist, Waiting-for-Godot-esque piece that writhes in a sort of maddening malaise, soars with candor, and is imbued with humor. Our Wings Are Pregnant Seesaws is one of Moe’s most underappreciated and lesser known works. An incredible rarity from one of the finest poets of the Second San Francisco Renaissance/Baby Beat Generation. From the archive of Thomas Rain Crowe (b. 1949), scholar, writer and member of the Baby Beat Generation. For more information on the Thomas Rain Crowe archive (assembled & curated by Third Mind Books), see our book Starting From San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books (item #3071) & the catalog for the Crowe archive (see item #1010), which contains several excerpts and quotations from the book as well as a full listing of the archive’s contents, which are now being offered for sale individually on the Third Mind Books site. Stapled Sheets. First & presumably only printing. In very fine condition with minimal wear to fine edges, light fading at text block, and slight rusting at staple. Very Fine. [Item #7686]

Price: $60.00