I first met Bob Feldman in the early 1970’s, in a time and place where young artists were feeling emboldened to stretch their personal boundaries, to take artistic liberties, to experiment, to explore unknown territory, and to discover more of themselves in the process. I remember thinking what an exuberant bohemian, free spirit, and progressive thinker he was. It was the beginning of a lifelong relationship, an artistic brotherhood. We’ve now spent many years delving into each other’s art and that has resulted in many mutually beneficial and beautiful results.
I knew he was a living link to those who preceded him from the “Paterson School”. We discussed William Carlos Williams, Louis and Allen Ginsberg to great lengths. In recent years, I couldn’t help thinking of him when watching the actor Adam Driver in the movie “Paterson”, delivering the lines of Kenneth Patchen, a mentor for him. Like those before him, Bob was a seeker, an adventurer of the mind, an artistic risk-taker, a literary explorer whose understanding and appreciation of the Beats lived within him. I have always thought he represents the ongoing embodiment of that literary generation. Of course, his experiences, his inspirations, and his writing reflects the highly personal. And he expresses all this as only he can. His life is intertwined with his artistic interests and his poetry reflects this. His poems share the visual complexity of his paintings. You hear be-bop jazz in his writing cadences. He is enveloped by and transmits his own personal modern mythology. I better understand compassion, hope, awe and wonderment in reading what he writes. His writing, and his life, demonstrate his carrying this Paterson tradition into the present.
I introduced “Feldy” (an affectionate nickname, much like Corso referring to his mentor as “Ginsy”) to Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1979 and asked him to host Ferlinghetti for several days while the San Francisco poet was in residence for the Bisbee Poetry Festival. It was an exceptional experience for the both of them, I soon found out. Ferlinghetti later told me he thought Bob was the young poet who could naturally assume the role of “keeping the spirit alive”. And, this has proven true. Over the long haul of a lifetime of years, Bob’s poetry has grown and matured. He’s been writing in own voice since those early years and I have never been surprised to discover the newness and the freshness of his expansive mind and imagination. His growth as an artist has always been on track, his experiences reflect that trajectory, and his words enable the reader to traverse that territory – much like following the leader’s footsteps in knee-deep snow. His vision accurately translates the colors, sounds, forms, and the sensations of the physicality of the environment that surrounds him. He captures the sense of the ephemeral thinking that many artists come to understand as spirituality, like watching clouds evolve and dissipate – leaving us with shared memories of similar experiences. The impact of the artist is readily apparent for all those willing to have new experiences. Bob’s poetry accomplishes this as easily as a veteran tour guide explains the connections between the past and present, allowing the reader to discover meanings that may lie just beyond what we have known and experienced. In this respect, he reminds me of Kandinsky and the Dada poets who also explored the darkness, emerging with a light that guides us on our own voyage of discoveries.
So, dear reader, I encourage you to read this book of recent poems, Hineni, differently than you read most other collections. First, read them, without pause, silently to yourself, as if reading a newspaper. Then, read them again, aloud, as if you were reading them to someone else, listening to your own voice to gain a little extra understanding. Lastly, read them a third time, pausing frequently to envision each word, each phrase, each image that enters your mind. Then, I believe, you will gain a better understanding of what each poem fully communicates. All further readings of the poems will convey significantly more information that enables the reader to “see” more than mere words on the page. Bob’s poetry has brought me much joy and, seemingly, the ability to appreciate much that would otherwise have gone unnoticed. I have long admired and respected his unique ability to communicate to me many new thoughts, ideas, and visions. I hope your experiences with his work will be as rewarding as mine have been.
Jon Friedman
Founding Director
Bisbee Poetry Festival