Leaning Against Time

by Neeli Cherkovski

Poetry. Winner of the 2005 Pen Oakland-Josephine Miles Literary Award for Poetry. From Los Angeles to San Francisco, from 1953 to now--Neeli Cherkovski uses bar scenes, cafe insights, family confessions, heartbreak and redemption, meditations on morality and the acceptance of self to transform memory, time and myth into an intimate poetic-memoir. He creates a window to the past and explores how time has shaped who he has become. It is here--the power of Cherkovski's talent surfaces. It is here he finds himself, like an old friend in a warm embrace, LEANING AGAINST TIME.

Genres: Poetry

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Neeli Cherkovski (born Nelson Innis Cherry) grew up in Los Angeles, California and moved to San Francisco in 1974, where he was a member of the vibrant North Beach literary community. He has lived with Jesse Cabrera since 1983. Cherkovski has published many books and his work has been translated into many languages. His papers are archived at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. He is a recipient of an American Book Award, a Josephine Miles National Literary Award, and is a San Francisco Public Library Literary Laureate. A Greek translation of Cherkovski's selected poems will be published in 2024 and his book of portrait poems will be published by City Lights Books in 2025. He is currently working on a memoir of his life, as well as a collection of literary essays.