By A. D. Winans
Jack Micheline lived in San Francisco. He authored several books, including I Kiss Angels, Skinny Dynamite, Letter to Jack Kerouac in Heaven and A Man Obsessed who does Not Sleep Who Wanders About the Night Mumbling to Himself Counting Empty Beer Cans. In 1957, Nat Hentoff, Jean Shepard and Charles Mingus awarded him the Revolt in Literature Award at the Half-Note Club in New York City. That same year his first book, River of Red Wine was introduced by Jack Kerouac. This interview was conducted September 23, 1997, in San Francisco and published shortly after his death in 1998.
TO MY GRANDFATHER
Louis Silver Lipinsky
You sat in your room
amidst the towers of the city
and read your books of Hebrew
absorbing the ages of
wisdom and mystical chants.
White locks covered your hair with age.
When you walked the streets
children followed you.
You told them fairy tales
and their eyes glittered
dreams of wonderland.
–Jack Micheline
A.D. WINANS: You have often said that you’re not a poet. What do you mean by that statement? If you’re not a poet what is a poem?
JACK MICHELINE: What is a poem? I don’t know, but when I feel high, when I feel intuitive, when I feel good, I write very quickly. My pen or pencil moves on the pages of my notebooks. I feel like I’m tuned into a higher space. A connection to a higher spirit. I really don’t know what a poem is. I don’t concern myself with definitions, so I’m not really interested in what a poem is.
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