Word count: 157
Paragraphs: 13
Who is going to be the first to write a death poem for Neeli?
Well, Neeli of course
Though who is going to be the first to read said poem?
Well, Neeli of course
How’s that you say?
Well, just close your eyes
And listen
He’s telling towering tales to Virgil and Homer
Of his life on Earth
Colossal
Abundant
Vaudevillian
He’s regaling Shakespeare and Dickinson
with stories from North Beach
Of that one night, among many
When lyrical imagery bounced down Grant Avenue
And possibly into his bed
He’s boasting to Catullus and Henry Miller
about his sexcapades and mischief
though, in the telling, there’s more wanting
than satisfaction
A voracious appetite for all of it
Poetry was breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert and all the meals in between
A poet all his life
A poet in death’s last breath
Inhaling John Coltrane, Chopin and Bob Dylan
Exhaling Alice Coltrane, Debussy and Van Morrison
3:23:13
Tate Swindell is an archivist, poet photographer, and founder of Unrequited Records, which specializes in poetry records released on the vinyl format. The latest release was an album of rare Gregory Corso readings from the late 1970s that included previously unpublished poems. In addition to an album of rare Bob Kaufman recordings due out in 2020, he recently co-edited the Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman for City Lights Books (2019). Tate, and his brother Todd, worked extensively on the Harold Norse archives, which were donated to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley. He is currently writing a memoir about his experiences as a pioneer in the San Francisco medical cannabis movement. His previous collections of writings include Palpitations, The Creation of Deadlines and Fotopomes.