The Buddhist Third Class Junkmail Oracle: The Art and Poetry of d a Levy - Pasta blanda

Levy (1942-68) was one of those poets who might as well have published his work in samidzat, considering the attention - and cult status - he obtained. An autodidact who spent most of his short life in Cleveland, levy collected his poetry in small chapbooks (most produced on his own photocopier) and obscure underground journals now long forgotten. Editor Golden, a poet and screenwriter, is to he commended for putting together this omnibus volume (including some of the poet's artwork) from the complex bibliographic scraps that levy - who died under mysterious circumstances - left behind. Clearly influenced by Guy Debord and the Situationist International (a 1950s updating of the Dadaist movement), levy's poetry is a pastiche of personal narrative ("i ask . . . / is new Carters Tavern old Carters / Tavern & are the best brews really / at the Harbor Inn?") and political harangue ("prophylactics are not / revolutionary / gun control begins in the bathroom") that largely rejects formal literary convention and aims at inducing (rather than conveying) the author's perceptions within the reader. Something of a local celebrity in the late '60s, levy was tried (unsuccessfully) in Cleveland on obscenity charges and was denounced in The Plain Dealer as a drug cultist. Golden provides a good introduction to those unfamiliar with the poet's life and career, but, as he admits himself, "This book, despite years of pruning, is still too rough to be labeled." Still, it's a nice start - even though levy remains more interesting as a character than as a poet - toward the increasing attention that eventually will be paid. (Kirkus Reviews)