St. Mark's Church Poetry Project reading reviewed 1976 (1 Viewer)

cirerita

Founding member
Published in Dodeca mag in 1976.

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If I read that in 1976, I would have wanted to go to a Bukowski reading. Sure Jackrell-off was throwing dirt, but "Say anything you want about me just spell my name right".
It made the reading sound entertaining, which was not Jackrell's objective. He spit out the car window and got it on his cheek.
 
OK - I just read this through once, so maybe I didn't fully absorb all of the wisdom that Day-Of-The-Jackrell was trying to impart, but....

This is a really thin criticism because it seems to focus almost entirely on his public performance "shortcomings" and ignores Buk's work itself. What about the words themselves ? The narratives ? The images ? All we know is a drunk and exhausted poet showed up and did a reading in Manhattan. And there was a shallow (and possibly jealous) critic waiting to shoot him down. Fuck that.

In spite of my bitching, thanks for posting Cirerita. Interesting review.
 
Thomas L. Jackrell was a published poet and artist in his own right. I have very little information about the man, but I believe he was viewed in high regard by Bukowski, and was of the Ginsberg circle in the early '60s.

I am researching Mr Jackrell and have yet to find anyone who can give me any more information other than one man who travelled briefly with him back in '63. I do know he lived for a while in Belleville, New Jersey.

I would be very grateful for anyone with information on Mr Jackrell if they would post here and I wil pick up periodically.

Many thanks for posting the review, although I am a little disappointed in some of the more vitriolic comments. Having read the review I feel Mr. Jackrell was more disappointed by Mr B's performance than disapproving (there was a whole tradition of drunken poets as Mr Jackrell states) - and after all, we all know CB was a good wordsmith who spoke from the heart, so what's the point in reviewing his words? We should make up our own... :cool:
 
Thomas L. Jackrell was a published poet and artist in his own right. I have very little information about the man, but I believe he was viewed in high regard by Bukowski, and was of the Ginsberg circle in the early '60s.
That explains a lot.

By the way, do you have a cite for that?
I am a little disappointed in some of the more vitriolic comments. Having read the review I feel Mr. Jackrell was more disappointed by Mr B's performance than disapproving (there was a whole tradition of drunken poets as Mr Jackrell states) - and after all, we all know CB was a good wordsmith who spoke from the heart, so what's the point in reviewing his words? We should make up our own... :cool:

You know, I didn't get that Jackrell was disappointed with Bukowski at all. I did see him using the performance to further the Beat agenda. And I saw him as a reviewer who marks Bukowski as an alcoholic, and an heir to the beats:

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Or did I take that out of context? Because I would hate to think that I wanted Bukowski to puke on Jackrell for the wrong reasons.
 
Hi Father Luke,
Well, the thing is, we all take the written word out of context of the moment it was written because there is only one person who knows their true intention when writing.
Sorry, I have no cite, just that Jackrell appears in the same breath out there as Ginsberg and indeed there is at least one photo of him in the Ginsberg archive. Tenuous, I know, but until I hear a definitive, I would say CB held all fellow poets in high regard. Respect, dude!
Puking on people is vile behaviour, and as an expression quite smelly. I am sure Mr J. wrote the "Anarchronism" (sic) line at a time when he was disappointed with CB's performance and indeed his use of the word "Puking" ... times and tastes change.
Do you know of Mr Jackrell at all other than this review? He had Poems published in The Evergreen Review Vol 5 No 17 Mar - Apr 1961 alongside Miller and Durrenmatt. I am in possession of one of his poetry / art journals and would like to trace him / more work by him.
 
Do you know of Mr Jackrell at all other than this review?
Well, yes, actually I googled his full name. I found stuff you can find, I don't know that it will be of any help. I'll defer to those with direct contact to him.

I will take one final jab. . .

I don't know that Bukowski held . . .
I would say CB held all fellow poets in high regard.
Privately, perhaps he was more respectful. But I've seen some pretty strong opinions written, and spoken by HCB about the beats, poets in general, and Ginsberg in particular.

And I'll leave it there.

And welcome to the forum. I hope you find something here to make you want to stay.
 
Hi Father L., thank you for the warm welcome. Do post again if you find anything in your CB circles about TLJ? All the best.

PS. I agree, I've done some reading round CB's links to the Beats... mmm... interesting comments out there indeed. It does make me want to read more of his stuff.

All the best,

Jackson.
 
Thomas L. Jackrell RIP

Unfortunately I have received word from the current owner of Tom's old house in Belleville New Jersey that "Unfortunately Mr Jackrell past (sic) away in 1996. The neighborhood has completely changed since. I bought the house from his daughter who was living in New Mexico USA."

I am saddened to think I won't be able to speak to the Man in person, but once again if anyone knows of his works or life then please post to this thread and I will pick up from time to time.

My sincere thanks to the site owners for allowing me to post here. Means a lot. We're all artists deep in the heart of us all.
 
Hmmm.

Did you check the google links I suggested? Google his full name. Here:

Thomas L. Jackrell

There were some books up on LuLu dot com as I recall.

Sorry you found sad news. However, as an Author, he shall live on in the pages he's published. There is cause for celebration in that.

Be well.
 
The good news is that a review like that may keep others away and make it possible to get into a reading.

It would keep the high-brow academics away. Of course, it would be funny to see it in their faces as they realized that they were not in their kind of place with their kind of poetry lovers....

Bill
 
Tom Jackrell

Dear Father Luke,

I tried Lulu - the only available poems there are the three that were published in "Evergreen Review" in 1961.

I also tried the link. Ditto there. I have Evergreen. I would like to get the poems from "Now" - there is ONE in ABEBOOKS but it costs to much for me to buy. Probably cos Ginsberg's in there too.

All the best,

Jackson.
 
Unfortunately I have received word from the current owner of Tom's old house in Belleville New Jersey that "Unfortunately Mr Jackrell past (sic) away in 1996."
My wife and I went to Jackrell's estate sale after his death. Most of the people who had come to look/shop were record dealers interested in his big collection of jazz 78's. But we were interested in the artwork we saw--at the time we didn't know he was a poet or had a Beat connection, but he was a prolific artist who had worked in many different styles over a decades-long career. We purchased a number of canvasses and a lot of drawings and watercolors. Some of them were in a very realistic art-school style, and some were highly abstract, pop art, folk art or primitive African-influenced. We also bought a few little bird-house like boxes that were covered in bright plastic buttons. We were very interested in who had made all of these wonderful objects, but were told that Jackrell's relatives were not willing to share any information. Since then we've only gleaned a few facts about him on the internet. We think he might have gone to the Art Student's League, and he appears to have won an award as a teenager from the Newark Museum School.

We still love Jackrell's artwork and think he would have been a kindred spirit if we'd gotten to know him. His house was quite humble but was filled with treasures. I wish we could go back to that day, fifteen years or more ago, and look for some of his poetry. I wonder if anyone has it, or if it was tossed into a dumpster?
 
I'm trying to determine if two paintings we inherited from our father were by this Tom Jackrell the poet. My parents met a Tom Jackrell when we lived in Washington, DC in about 1965-66. Tom came and lived with us for a while. My father purchased a fairly large painting called "Ham Never Knew" from him, which is now hanging on our dining room wall. We loved it as children since it is full of mysterious colorful objects, and I remain very attached to it. My father had a story about it that Tom had to stop painting it because everything in the painting was turning into teeth. It is signed "Passaic." My father said that he used this moniker since he was from Passaic, NJ. Were any of the paintings you saw or purchased from the estate signed "Passaic?"
 

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