David Meltzer 1937-2016

It is with great sadness that we learned this morning of the passing of the great poet and our friend David Meltzer.

David Meltzer was born in Rochester, New York, & raised in Brooklyn.  He began his literary career during the San Francisco Beat & Berkeley Renaissance period in North Beach, California, & his work was included in the anthology, “The New American Poetry 1945–1960.”  At the age of 20, he recorded his poetry with jazz musicians in Los Angeles & also became a singer-songwriter & guitarist for several bands during the 1960s, including The Serpent Power.  He was the author of more than 40 volumes of poetry, including Arrows: Selected Poetry 1957–1992, No Eyes: Lester Young (2000), Beat Thing (2004), & David’s Copy (2005).

But most importantly, he was someone we were lucky enough to call friend. In our Summer 2014 issue, David was gracious enough to grant us an interview talking about his life, jazz and poetry. We are forever indebted to David for his amazing poems, music and spirit. The world is a slightly darker place now without him.