A. D. Winans
A. D. Winans was born in San Francisco and graduated from San Francisco State College (now University). He returned home from Panama in 1958 to participate in the North Beach Beat movement.
His first book of poems, Carmel Clowns, was published in1970 by Atom Mind Press. Winans is the author of 35 books of poetry and prose, including The Holy Grail: The Charles Bukowski and Second Coming Revolution.
Recent poetry books include Sleeping With Demons (Black Shark Press), Whispers From Hell (Bos Press), The System (Centennial Press) and A Bastard Child With No Place To Go (12 Gauge Press). He is a member of
PEN and a poem of his was set to music and performed in 2002 at Tully Hall, in New York City.
Winans says, “I have never worn the label of poet well. When I sit down to write, the demons take over. Like the late Jack Spicer, I believe that ‘verse does not originate from within the poets expressive will as a spontaneous gesture
unmediated by formal constraints but is a foreign agent, a parasite that invades the poet's language and expresses what it wants to say.’”
January Featured Poem -
SAN FRANCISCO STREETS by A. D. Winans
I've walked these San Francisco streets
Like a crime photographer walks his beat
My eyes taking in her every movement
My brain storing real and imagined images
In sixty-seven years
Her changes have not eluded me
She is older now
More wrinkled and cranky
Much like me
But the two of us manage to get along
like business partners looking after
Each others interests
You have to learn to give and take
You have to learn to adjust
The city is like a cup of strong coffee
Stir her enough
And the flavor floats to the top
I have walked these streets
In good condition and broken down physique
Knowing there is no city like her in the world
She is like a pair of empty shoes
Sitting under the bed
With no feet big enough
To fill them
She is like a squirrel running
Through the live wires
Of a utility pole
She is like the last bullet
in the executioners's gun
She is like Billie Holiday
Drenched in sweat
She is like the face of God
All forgiving
In her insatiable lust
For life.
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