Carmelita Estrellita (AKA Natalie Estrellita) is a longtime contributor to First of the Month. Fired up by late stylings of Leonard Cohen (among other personal heroes) ourFirst lyricist has been especially inspired lately. Check these new testaments to Estrellita’s wit and the beat of her “knee-jerk heart.” Touch Me touch you in the evening touch … Read more

First is honored to publish poems by Diane di Prima (who has just been named Poet Laureate of San Francisco). A GOOD DAY TO it is with my whole heart open no pain in it I celebrate lost brothers & sisters — what joy! we lived riding war ponies straight into the sun   REALITY … Read more

the mystical o’brien I’m not even sure how to spell his name surrounds me like a siren one more phantom not quite feeling his pain (but wishing to just the same) the new york public library’s losing its mind the books all speechless the windows blind a million ideas now no one can find walked … Read more

That man with the cat face circling the ring long spidery arms at his sides, is Gavilan, oiled and ready, the one-time cane cutter now fine-tuned to destroy. He’s waiting. If someone would step up, he’d hold down the rope’s middle strand with unblinking, bloodshot, almond eyes. The dusty light of August 1948 falls across … Read more

Rudolph Wurlitzer’s novels have moved a generation of writers and rockers. He’s carried his themes and dreams along the “celluoid trail,” writing screenplays for memorable movies such as “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” “Little Buddha,” “Walker” and “Candy Mountain.” His latest novel, “The Drop Edge of Yonder,” is a book (as per Patti Smith) … Read more

Revolutionary Letter #71 For Bella Akhmadulina Note: In her great poem, “I Swear,” written for her forerunner, the poet Marian Tsvetaeva, Bella Akhmadulina vows to “kill Yelabung,” the town in which Tsvetaeva hanged herself in 1941. Akhmadulina addresses the town as if it were some kind of malevolent entity or demon. A life for a … Read more

it was an invention of the late great great joel oppenheimer who invented a lot of things but let other guys take credit for them cause he didn’t wanna get involved in office work the lazy bum he just wanted to sit in the lions head (or the cedars or dillons or mcsorleys) and invent … Read more