visit d.a. levy's grave
Thanks to everyone who commented on yesterday's blog, Bridge Over Muddy Waters?. Once again, you've proven that the comments are often better reading than the blogs themselves. Thank you! I haven't responded to individual comments there yet because I've had a splitting headache last night and this morning - and I want to be able to think straight when I respond. But I'll try to do so in the near future.
In one of those comments, Elena mentioned how much she's enjoyed Joy Leftow's writing. I'm pleased to announce (for those who don't yet know) that yesterday I posted Poetic Concussions (by Joy Leftow) in the Crisis Chronicles Online Library. Please check it out. And also note that there's a link to her cool poetry blog somewhere in my left sidebar.
My headache is inhibiting any attempt at creativity or deep thinking, but there's something else cool I did yesterday and would like to share with you.
d.a. levy, poet (1942-1968)
If you've been following my blog and online library postings for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Cleveland underground poetry legend d.a. levy. He's been classified as both Beat and street, but his poetry defies any one label. He is revered not only as a poet, but also as a publisher and artist. He produced a fantastic underground newspaper called The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle. He was also persecuted - and at one point arrested for reading a poem featuring the word cocksucker in public. Finally, on 24 November 1968, he committed suicide at the age of 26.
Yesterday Geri and I went on a pilgrimage to d.a. levy's grave site (Whitehaven Memorial Park in Mayfield Village) and took a few photos.
I had expected it to be easy to find. I guess I thought there would be signs directing us to it - or at least a big headstone or a well decorated plot. Flowers, beer bottles, a Buddhist gong, something!.... After all, to me, levy is one of the most important people in Cleveland (and literary) history.
So we drove to the front office. I asked the lady inside if she could direct me to "where the poet d.a. levy is buried."
"Who?" I was shocked to learn she'd never heard of him before. But she said she'd find him, then went into a back room and started digging in a filing cabinet. "Is that spelled L E V Y?"
"Yes."
Finally she pulled out a dusty 3 by 5 inch index card. "Would that be Darryl Allan?"
"Yes, Darryl Allan."
So she pulled out a Xerox copy of the cemetery map, marked his plot with a yellow highlighter, and told me which way to go.
When we got there, I was surprised by how humble it was. It looked as though no one but the lawn mowers had been there in years - like he'd been forgotten. I wondered how long it had been since the last time that index card had been pulled out of the cabinet. And I was surprised that his grave marker identified him not as POET, but as SON.
On 24 November 2008, which will be the 40th anniversary of d.a.'s death, I plan to visit his gravesite again, around noon, and pay tribute to him by reading his poetry aloud. Nothing official or organized (though that could change if the spirit so moves) - might just be me there. But bring a lawn chair, if you want. You can read, too. The man is largely responsible for the Cleveland poetry scene being as vibrant as it is today. Sadly, though, there are some venues where you still can't read much of d.a. levy's poetry aloud. You can read books about war and the Holocaust at those events, but you can't say "fuck," even if it's in tribute to one of Cleveland's greatest writers. Sad.... But I don't expect any ghosts to rise from their graves in protest if someone reads a so-called dirty word in the cemetery.
Here are some more photos from the site:
levy's at the bottom, that close to the road
from the other side
couldn't leave the scene without standing up against censorship at least once
see you 24 November
P.S. As you see, I had no interest in photographing the war monuments. I couldn't help but recall these lines from levy's "Cleveland: The Rectal Eye Visions":
it leaves
an uneasy feeling to think of justice
peace
& love and then find oneself
lost in a city of war monuments
* * * * *
I'm in the process of adding as many d.a. levy works as possible to the Crisis Chronicles Online Library. Here's a link to a rough index of what's available so far: http://library.crisischronicles.com/categories/levy%20(d.a.).aspx
To view a video of me reading some of levy's work please visit:
http://crisisblog.crisischronicles.com/2008/07/25/jesus-da-levytates-on-video.aspx
For more d.a. levy, I recommend you check out clevelandmemory.org
You might also find www.clevelandpoetryarchive.com interesting
Posted by Jesus Crisis at 9/25/2008 4:46 PM 
Categories: Cleveland, Poetry by Others, Travel and Places
Categories: Cleveland, Poetry by Others, Travel and Places
Always important to give respect where respect is due. I love all that you do...
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Why is it when I read your blogs and see your pictures tears come to my eyes? I also have had a miserable headache but from an infection and shingles this summer. But it is not that reason I am torn up right now. Cocksucker and sex offender and injustice and pain. Then graves
and poetic license and Joy that you realized was so interesting that you put her on your literature collection.
Connections and reflections of your life and mine.
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Thank you, Joy! I'm happy you agreed to let me feature some of your work in the Online Library.
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Thanks for the good read - interesting thoughts about levy's grave. I wonder if anyone else has made a pilgrimage to it?
We visited the Oaxacan cemetery the other day, joked about putting Smith there when he dies.
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I suspect someone else has done it. My Facebook friend Byrun Reed, also a poet, is the one who gave me the idea a couple months ago. Can't remember now if he said he'd already been there - but I do recall us batting around the idea of going sometime.
'Twould be cool to be buried in Oaxaca. Nobody seemed to be buried on either side of d.a., but I imagine the plots are already taken. Maybe his family owns them, since they apparently provided the marker. I should investigate further.
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some say LEVY LIVES. if he is, he's 66, 4 years older than i am.
he's probably renting a beach bungalow with elvis, janis joplin, jim hendryx and jim morrison.
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In a sense, he DOES live. Thanks to the folks who've kept him alive....
I read somewhere that Elvis is living in cognito in Michigan using the name John Burroughs.
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Just another thought. Is this a Jewish cemetery? You mentioned the Holocaust.
One usually goes to the Jewish cemeteries between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur to say the prayers for those who are gone. I have done this more than a few times....
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I'm not sure it is - though I did notice lots of Jewish-sounding names on the markers near levy.
I only mentioned the Holocaust because I thought it a good example of something far more obscene than the f-word. Plus Levy is a Jewish name - a priestly one at that.
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Very cool.. I love the one shot of you lying on the grave with the headstone under your head... how awesomely irreverent.
Envious again....
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Thanks. I was lying (or is it laying?) at that particular angle in an attempt to avoid duck shit.
There were ducks everywhere - after we left, I regretted I hadn't gotten at least one duck photo.
Fuck a duck!
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I'm adamantly against any form of censorship, but if we are going to start sending words to their extinction, I vote that lie and lay shoud go. They are the most difficult and misused pair of verbs in the English language. According to my 8th grade English teacher, Sister Katherine, lie means to assume a lying position and lay means to put or place something. But, the past tense of lie is lay. Now what cocksucker's idea was that?
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Oh. forgot to ask.. did you at least leave the poor man a beer??
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I didn't leave him a beer, but perhaps I should have. You remind me of a true story:
Many years ago, my brother and I were walking through a graveyard on our way home after the Elyria bars closed. Mike poured out the last of his beer on a tombstone and said, "Here, man. You need this more than I do."
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LOL... it's a common custom in Mexico and other countries to leave offerings for the dead. They do it in Asia as well if I'm not mistaken. Just thought a good beer would serve him well. Maybe in November you could schedule a graveside poetry reading there... that would be cool. So it wouldn't be just you... let the press know and make it a real event.... it would be one way to put poetry on the map. (and advertise it...)
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Jewish custom prevails in Jewish cemeteries and I don't think a beer is appropriate. Leaving a stone on the grave is done and saying Hebrew prayers for the dead. I have a comment on the recent poem you put on the library concerning D.A.Levy's and my religion.
On the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca relatives go to the cemeteries and eat and drink as if they are having a party with and for the dead and hold an all night vigil. What a difference in customs from Memorial Day or even our Halloween. What is it about cemeteries that fascinate us? Many are being cremated now and both my parents have been. However, many still spend a fortune on caskets, burial services, flowers and monuments. I was recently in Arlington Cemetery in D. C. where my daughter's father-in-law, a veteran and a member of the foreign service was buried (but was cremated first and his remains are in a niche there), My father had his ashes buried at sea by the U. S. Navy with a ceremony on board ship. So many different ways to remember the dead. Of course if you are a believing Buddhist you will presume to come back as a reincarnation.
Wow...
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Check out the section in Russell Salamon's latest book Ascent from Cleveland (Fredonia Press of Bottom Dog). He describes his adventure of looking and finding his dear friend's ,da, grave during his last visit here.
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Cool... thanks, Steve! I appreciate the recommendation. I was having trouble deciding what to buy with my Amazon gift certificate - but now I know.
I have Russell's Woodsmoke and Green Tea (Deep Cleveland, 2006) and it's marvelous.
In case anyone else is interested:
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Hey,
Thanks for the shout out in your blog. It's funny, I went to levy's grave, and read some of my poems to him. Just me, and I couldn't help but feel someone or something listening. I knew I was ok. Take care
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Thanks, Byrun! For the inspiration, and for sharing your cool story....
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I think that it's wonderful that you honor the memory of one of your favorite poets. I think that we all want to be remembered. I was touched by the idea that it disturbed you that there was no evidence that this person you revere has been warmly remembered. I don't think that it's so much that people don't care as it is that they forget with teh passage of time. It can be a very lonely reality for those who remember. I make a pilgramage a few times a year to a grave. It is not of someone famous, but no less important. In the beginning, the site would overflow with tributes. That is not the case any longer, save a precious few. I guess that's as it should be. But it is a comfort to know that there are some who will always remember.
But that's not really the main issue here. You're talking about censorship and I for one would rather hear words that offend my sensibilities than live in a world where someone gets to decide what I can and cannot say. I think that it should be up to the individual, the writer and reader to decide what language is effective and appropriate. I'm a big fan of the idea if you don't like it don't watch/don't listen. Most importantly history has already proven that there are so many great works of art and literary genius that would be lost had the censors of the time been sucessful in denying artistic freedom of expression.
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I have a comment about the "d.a.levy" grave site. I commend you on your interest in my uncle's poetry. That's right, d.a.levy was "uncle Darryl" to me. (my dads brother) I was 8 years old when my uncle took his own life. It was a sad time (my mother had just died in July of 1967 at age 27)This is not a joke comment or anything like that. I remember going to the grave site with my grandma Carol and Grandpa Joe (his parents)and once with my dad. I have not been their since.You probably noticed the name spelling of my last name is "Levey" and not "Levy". The only explanation I or my sister received was that my parents choose to spell the last name "Levey" because it was the "Christian" way of spelling the last name. Who knows. My sister recently died at age 48 from pancreatic cancer. After my sister died, I took possession of much of my uncle's work which will become available to the general public soon by Jeff Maser, bookseller. www.detritus.com. I think true levy fans will be fascinated by some of this material because much of it has to do with his personal life during those short years he lived in Cleveland and tried to make a difference in that city with his words and concrete poetry and paintings. As far as the celebration at his grave site, I would only ask that you give him the respect the he deserves if you do go their on his birthday. I loved him as a kid who would love his uncle, my memories of him are fond and most of what I feel in my older years is the sadness that swept through the family and his many friends after his death. Here's to Uncle Darryl and all that he stood for.
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a post script to my comment. you said you are going to visit uncle d.a.'s grave on the anniversary of his death. I think it would be more appropriate to celebrate his birth. and lastly, you should realize the many many people do know d.a. - even if the cemetary clerk did not. this is the internet age and I have gotten phone calls about your planned celebration. as I said before, I would hope that you would please be respectful, maybe trim the grave stone, light a candle and burn some insense. my uncle was not a "drunk, dope smokin, hippie"
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Thank you, sir! I very, very much appreciate your feedback on this. I didn't mean to celebrate his death, but to simply remember him on that day. I absolutely agree that his birthdate would be most appropriate for a celebration. I didn't realize when I wrote this blog that his birthday was coming up soon as well.
As for being respectful, I could not be more in agreement with you. I have great respect and admiration for your uncle. To me he is a hero with a brilliant mind and a compassionate, generous heart - not only a great poet. If he was just a stereotypical "drunk, dope smokin' hippie," I might still like him, but I would not feel as high a regard as I do for him - nor would I be as interested in keeping his memory alive.
Your feelings on this mean a great deal to me, and I am grateful you've been so kind as to share them.
Peace and best wishes,
John, a.k.a. Jesus Crisis
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Thank's for your sincere reply John. My uncle was so far ahead of his time at a young age. Nobody was listening at that time, only criticizing (main stream mom and apple pie individuals of that time including the friggin police!)The unreleased material that Jeff Maser has does shed a diffirent light on d.a. I held nothing back from Jeff in the collection (well, maybe a few duplicates of some of his work for example a copy of "suburban monestary death poem") and such. Please feel free to contact Jeff at the web site I mentioned. Much of the material will be going to a University special collections department where it will be properly preserved, But if you contact Jeff (a really good guy by the way) I know that he could really help you out if you get the inkling to know more about my uncle.
Take Care
Gumshoe (that is my nickname that my uncle gave me when I was wetting diapers, and my father called me this his entire life, dad passed away in 1988, but not kidding)
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Happy Birthday Uncle Darryl!
Love
Gumshoe
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Happy birthday, d.a.!
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Miss these sorts of blogs John.. but I know times change and life moves on. hardly time to write blogs with doing all the living that needs doing.
I'm going to try to visit this when I'm back in Cleveland later in the week... anything I might need to know to find it in addition to the info here in this blog??
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Dear John and others; I just saw this chain about d.a. levy and his grave site. I found its location in the summer of 2007 when I was there for the reading at the Art House for Larry Smith's Bottom Dog Press release of the book "d.a. levy and the Mimeograph Revolution". Which I recommend to any d.a. levy fans and all Cleveland poets. I also have a few copies of UKANHAVYRFUCKINCITI BAK. which is nearly all d.a levy material. R.J.S still has some of the original mimeographed books that he and Tom Kryss produced for levy's legal defense fund in 1967. Those are rare collector's copies and give a vivid history of levy's battle against censorship in favor of clean hands clean consciences and freedom to be honest and to speak freely. I brought out a reprint of 400 copies on May 18, 2007. Mark Kuhar and Joanne Cornelius also have some of the reprints in the Cleveland area (Medina and Parma). (20 dollars plus shipping).
In the meanwhile in 1968 Michael McMahon, Fredonia Books, and Larry Smith, Bottom Dog Press, published my "Ascent from Cleveland: Wild Heart Steel Phoenix," which contains articles about d.a. levy and it an update of the "levy legend" and my connection with it. In 1963 to 1965 levy, Kent Taylor, Russell Atkins, Jon Cornillon, Jau Billera, and academically, Lewis Turco and Alberta Turner, and on radio, Robert Conrad, were most of the Cleveland poetry scene. levy and Russell Atkins were the most active. I had just discovered poetry as a student at Fenn College and was writing a lot and working at Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation on swing shifts and working in my course schedule. At the Fenn College Poetry Forum, founded by Lewis Turco, I met d.a. levy and was disarmed by his fierce innocence and humorous ironies, and his intense presence; his piercing brown eyes looked straight through you entire time track as an immortal being. It was startling to be so thoroughly recognized.
In l964 levy needed a place to stay and I invited him to live rent free on the bluff overlooking The Flats (the Cuyahoga River bottom land, wharves, factories, warehouses, and the many bridges, and incredible Cleveland history). The river was at the bottom of our windows just to the east of us. We were about 100 yards from the West Side Market slightly south in back of the apartment building at 1869 West 22nd Street, and across the street from a nunnery. Landlady on the first floor had about 48 cats--what a smell!
The details of that period are in my Descent into Cleveland, a poetic novel, some copies of which may be still around. I have one copy left. More could be printed. My email address is: thesalamons@earthlink.net. 818-761-4568 You may contact me if you wish. d.a. levy's dates are 10/29/1942--11/24/1968; mine is 12/06/41.
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