In Memory of Larry Fagin (1937–2017)

This weekend the poet Larry Fagin passed away at the age of 80. The author of numerous books, and former assistant director at the Poetry Project, he founded Adventures in Poetry as a journal in the 1970s. It became a small press publisher in 2001. At Cuneiform, Kyle Schlesinger writes "Larry always stressed the importance of looking up, and this snapshot by John Sarsgard beautifully distills that small gesture of optimism he embodied so naturally, and gently." From there:

Even thinking about death:

I get
the idea
I can die
anytime,
then
I forget
it.

Larry was the first real poet I ever met. I must have been 19 or so. It was a memorable spring day on the Lower East Side, kids zipping around Tompkins Square Park, birds, and the smell of soft earth was in the air. My friend Luisa Giugliano had hired Larry as a private tutor, as so many poets of our generation had. Larry taught out of his living room, providing long lists of paintings to look at, books to read, movies to watch. We met outside his apartment on East 12th Street between First and Avenue A. He looked so cool with his elbow propped on the building, holding his breezy hair in his hand, and spoke enthusiastically about something called the ‘internet’ where you could buy any record you wanted.

We remained friends for two decades and spent many afternoons hanging out in his living room. We read together just once, at the Bowery Poetry Club just before Christmas in 2008. The recording is here. Larry thought it would be fun to do the shortest reading ever, so we agreed to each keep our sets to ten minutes or less. The audience was a little bewildered, but it was a sweet and modestly refreshing occasion in its own way.

Continue at Cuneiform.