ABC's

by Neeli Cherkovski

Neeli Cherkovski’s new poem bubbles with improvisatory acumen, sounds echoing the intelligence of affect melts into the necessity for resonance—before turning around to shake your comrade! friend! reader! Charles Bernstein “moon songs, ethereal music and / stuff like that” a way to move through numbers, letters, jazz or “music is thought / not feeling” “music is color / not form BUT / music is beyond” and the poems have form, a narrow shape down pages, the letters start to resonate, not just jumping off points, but sounds that rhythmically fight for stretches, of humanity, humility on the hill ahead. Neeli is at his loosest here, his swing gathers him into its gullet. “hi! / how are you?” he can suddenly ask the reader, anyone. Lines swell and recede like the waters. A terrific ride, he’ll keep you safe! a bonus ABC for Jack Hirschman! Vincent Katz In the age-old tradition of alphabet poems, from Psalm 119, to St. Augustine, to Chaucer, to Edward Lear and the present, Neeli Cherkovski’s ABC’S expand the poet’s singing voice, discovering remarkable musicality in the verse’s every turn. Throughout the sequence, Cherkovski delivers intoxicating melodies, forms of silence often dizzying in their new familiarity. Paul Vangelisti

114 pages, Paperback

Published November 6, 2021

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.