Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) was one of the best, though now one of the
most neglected, of the Beat poets and though he was born in New
Orleans, was perhaps the one most closely associated (maybe along with
Kenneth Rexroth) with San Francisco. I bought him a beer once in the
Coffee Gallery in San Francisco's North Beach, and he thanked me by
telling me that H. L. Mencken was a genius, an appreciation I thought
striking since Kaufman was half black and half Jewish and Mencken
notoriously made disparaging comments about both groups.
As a footnote to "I Have Folded My Sorrows", it should be noted that
"cold summer nights" is not necessarily a bizarre conceit in Northern
California.
There is a story, or legend, that Kaufman took a vow of silence after
the assassination of John F. Kennedy which he broke when the Vietnam
War ended in 1973 by uttering the poem "ALL THOSE SHIPS THAT NEVER
SAILED."
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Jon Corelis http://jcorelis.googlepages.com/joncorelis
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