Bowery Books

The Bowery Poetry Club's new publishing imprint, Bowery Poetry Books, has launched two books in its first six months of existence: Taylor Mead's A Simple Country Girl and The Bowery Bartenders Big Book of Poems.

It's been twenty years since Mead's last book and A Simple Country Girl demonstrates what we've been missing in the interim. "If he had decided to live in Paris instead of New York, they'd have built several monuments to Taylor Mead a long time ago" - Gary Indiana. In a career that's spanned nearly 60 years, Taylor's won roughly equal renown as a poet and an actor. His previous books include Son of Andy Warhol: Excerpts from the Anonymous Diary of A New York Youth Taylor Mead (1986). And see if you can quote someone notable - besides Indiana - raving about one of them. Maybe Warhol said something cool]. The poet remains in top form at age 80. Consider this gem from A Simple Country Girl --

Math

I think
my three hour memory
is (sort of) normal
for a silly seventy-eight
year old
who's slept half his life
away
so I am only thirty-two

Taylor's movie credits include innumerable underground classics, from Andy Warhol's Lonesome Cowboys (1968) and Taylor Mead's Ass to the first film of the Beat generation, The Flower Thief (1960) On stage he created the title role in Frank O'Hara's The General Returns from One Place to Another (1963) and Michael McClure's Spider Rabbit. (1971). More recently he was featured in Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), and this year stars in the documentary Excavating Taylor Mead.

Starting with the premise that bartenders who pour at a poetry club must also be poets in their own right, the series continues with volume two: The Bowery Bartenders Big Book of Poems featuring inspired poetry from Shappy; Moonshine Shorey; Laurel Barclay - as well as a cohort of intoxicating poems in the form of cocktail recipes by Gary Mex Glazner. Here, have a drink:

The Sharon Olds

1 cup spicy Bloody Mary mix
1 cup fresh squeezed Orange juice
½ cup fresh squeezed Lime juice
3 teaspoons Grenadine
Dash Chili powder
Pinch of Salt
Fresh ground Pepper

Mixing instructions:

Combine all ingredients with naked body on sheet. Add sweat jumping out of pores, stir well with palm. Serve on belly. Sign on for the duration.

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For more info about these books, review copies, or an interview with any of the poets, please contact books@bowerypoetry.com. Or visit our website at www.bowerypoetry.com