Thursday, January 12, 2006
SF mayor names Beat Generation's Hirschman as poet laureate
A prolific Beat Generation poet known for decades of leftist social activism has been selected as San Francisco's new poet laureate.
Jack Hirschman is set to accept the post at a ceremony at San Francisco City Hall tomorrow.
Shortly afterward, he plans to read poetry on the steps of the State Building in San Francisco as part of a demonstration against the death penalty.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom says he wanted an outspoken poet laureate and that Hirschman's vocal activism made him a perfect pick for the slot.
*
The Happiness
*
There's a happiness, a joy
in one soul, that's been
buried alive in everyone
and forgotten.
It isn't your barroom joke
or tender, intimate humor
or affections of friendliness
or big, bright pun.
They're the surviving survivors
of what happened when happiness
was buried alive, when
it no longer looked out
of today's eyes, and doesn't
even manifest when one
of us dies, we just walk away
from everything, alone
with what's left of us,
going on being human beings
without being human,
without that happiness.
~ Jack Hirschman ~
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