Various (Gosciak, J.G. (Editor); Kenny, Maurice (Editor); Duff, Michael; Holmes, John Clellon; Hai-Jew, Shalin; Kalamaras, George; Bruchac, Joseph et al.)

Contact/II Vol. 10 No. 62/63/64 (Spring 1992)

New York, NY, USA: Contact Publications, 1992. First Edition. Stapled Wrappers. “We demonstrate our immaculate skill / in this cool room, numbering and bagging the dead / down the long conveyor belt to the furnace, / the quota sheets proof of our productivity. / We pay respects and are absolved. / We’re reconciled to this human toll, which / obscurely allows for the survivors–suspicious / of passion, patriotism, ideas, God. / Music plays 24 hours daily. We’re fat with years, / thrifty with organs, jewelry. Our fingernails / are clipped, faces masked for sterility. / So many same-size bags. The young come for us / in doorways. “Soldiers are trained to kill / and be killed,” we say. Ranks are easily filled: / they’re moving up. #1692 came down river, / #1693 collapsed in a trench, #1694 fell / from the sky. A bedtime fable: Somewhere / from the numerous fronts, a soldier returns home, / asks for bed and dinner.”--Shanlin Hai-Jew, “The Farewell Party,” pg. 50. Contact/II was an American literary magazine from New York. Established in 1976, the periodical was edited by Maurice Kenny (1929-2016) and Josh Gosciak. Contact/II published poetry, reviews, and interviews. Contact/II also published books and chapbooks of contemporary poetry.The name Contact/II was a tribute to Contact, a small press poetry magazine produced in the 1920s and 1930s by William Carlos Williams (1883-1963). Offered today is the Spring 1992 issue Contact/II Vol. 10, No. 62/63/64 Fall 1991/Spring 1992. This issue features: the poems “Exchange,” “Swell Lodge by Bell Brook,” and “Lava Flow At Kalapana,” by Joseph Bruchac (b. 1942); “The Farewell Party,” “Comfort For a Muse,” by Shalin Hai-Jew (b. 1965); “Note Left On The Bed,” by William Aberg (b. 1957); “Buttah,” by Wanda Coleman (1946-2013); “They Don’t Know How Lucky They Are,” “The Black Rose On My Forehead,” and “I Am A Suburb of Chicago” by George Kalamaras; and “John Clellon Holmes: When Bebop Aint Enuf” a review of John Clellon Holmes’ (1926-1988) newest (at the time) book Night Music: Selected Poems (1989) by Michael Duff among many other great contributions! From the collection of Albert Glover (b. 1942), the great American scholar, bibliographer, author & publisher who is the foremost living authority on literary giant Charles Olson (1910-1970), our favorite Maximus Obscurantist, with whom we’re honored to be acquainted. Stapled wrappers. First & presumably only printing. In relatively fine-very fine condition with moderate wear to fine edges, moderate smudging/scratching to front and back covers, mild rusting at staples, and slight fading due to age-toning to same. Fine-Very Fine. [Item #8611]

Price: $35.00