Poem from Jail

by Ed Sanders

Genres: Poetry

27 pages, chapbook

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Ed Sanders is an American poet, singer, social activist, environmentalist, author and publisher. He has been called a bridge between the Beat and Hippie generations.

Sanders was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He dropped out of Missouri University in 1958 and hitchhiked to New York City’s Greenwich Village. He wrote his first major poem, "Poem from Jail," on toilet paper in his cell after being jailed for protesting against nuclear proliferation in 1961.

In 1962, he founded the avant-garde journal, Fuck You: A Magazine of the Arts. Sanders opened the Peace Eye Bookstore (147 Avenue A in what was then the Lower East Side), which became a gathering place for bohemians and radicals.

Sanders graduated from New York University in 1964, with a degree in Classics. In 1965, he founded The Fugs with Tuli Kupferberg. The band broke up in 1969 and reformed in 1984.

In 1971, Sanders wrote The Family, a profile of the events leading up to the Tate-LaBianca murders. He obtained access to the Manson Family by posing as a "Satanic guru-maniac and dope-trapped psychopath."

As of 2006, Sanders lives in Woodstock, New York where he publishes the Woodstock Journal with his wife of over 36 years, the writer and painter Miriam R. Sanders. He also invents musical instruments including the Talking Tie, the microtonal Microlyre and the Lisa Lyre, a musical contraption involving light-activated switches and a reproduction of Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Reviews

[AnSmellica · Rating 5 out of 5]

DANG
a scathing indictment of nuclear warfare written on a roll of toilet paper during his imprisonment for protesting u.s. militarism. I feel like I just tripped acid for 27 pages. old Ed wrenched me into the cell with him, then took me on a high speed chase through the beginning and end of the universe. and a lotta places in between

The poetry is weird & vivid & goofy & frenetic. I'd even say explos*ve, but I don't think this guy likes bombs very much

[Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that Ed Sanders wrote this on a roll of toilet in his jail cell in 1961, makes this an interesting read. The fact that a poem protesting the use of nuclear weapons written 60 years ago is still very relevant today, makes this an unnerving read.

[teresa connolly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The road
twisted
like a knife
across the desert
& slashed
the throat
of Mountains,
& I crawled,
onward,
clutching guts
and coughing blood,
scrawling poems
on rocks
with a charred log
& laughing
to watch
a desert burst
wash out
the lines;
and crawled
all onward,
& entered the
Mountain,
Yes! crawled in
to the vastness.