Happy 80th Michael McClure!

Michael McClure turns 80 today, October 20, 2012. A leading USAmerican poet, playwright, essayist and novelist, he was born in Kansas, but spent some of his formative years in Seattle and is considered a Black Mountain poet, a Beat poet and a poet of the San Francisco Renaissance. It was not long after I moved to Auburn, Washington, that a new book of his appeared in the mailbox. It was Three Poems. I had no idea at the time that the book would radically affect my life, but I did know that he was someone I wanted to interview. The book was sent to me because I was an interviewer and was on the media lists of publishers. I had interviewed Allen Ginsberg the previous year, 1994 and it might have been the Ray Manzarek connection or the Ginsberg/Beat poet connection that made me say yes to the interview opportunity, but it was set for October 1995.
[ctd. here]