Poetry Los Angeles: Reading the Essential Poems of the City

Title Page, Copyright, Dedication, Quotes

Poetry Los Angeles Poetry Los Angeles Reading the Essential Poems of the city Laurence Goldstein Ann Arbor The University of Michigan Press Copyright © 2014 by Laurence Goldstein All rights reserved This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publisher. Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-­ free paper 2017 2016 2015 2014  4 3 2 1 A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN 978-­ 0-­ 472-­ 07224-­ 8 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-­ 0-­ 472-­ 05224-­ 0 (paper : alk. paper) ISBN 978-­0-­472-­12041-­3 (e-­book) To my wife Nancy Goldstein And in memory of my parents Cecil Goldstein and Helen Goldstein Let us imagine, for example, a landscape whose combined vastness and definitiveness—­ whose united beauty, magnificence and strangeness, shall convey the idea of care, or culture, or superintendence on the part of beings superior, yet akin to humanity—­ then the sentiment of interest is preserved, while the art intervolved is made to assume the air of an intermediate or secondary nature—­ a nature which is not God, nor an emanation from God, but which still is nature in the sense of the handiwork of the angels that hover between man and God. Edgar Allan Poe, “The Domain of Arnheim” City of angles, saxes, jukes. Of singles, sex, and jewels. Of the Lost and Jealous. The Angelless. L./Aliens. Shangri-­ L.A. El Lay Grande. The LA-­ byrinth, sick of tryin’, With centers everywhere, like Pascal’s God, in plazas and pavilions, Minimalls for drive-­ bys, drive-­ ups, minimaulings, Carjackings, gangbangings, gaudy private compounds . . . “Uh-­ huh, this is Lozengeles,” as my polyglot, My exiled, suave, intensely hoarse Iraqi friend observes. What are the limits of its mesh and mess? Stephen Yenser, “Los Angeles Fractals” ...