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HomeShop at BookSurgeSocial ScienceThe Game Is Played on a Delicate Foundation: and even better poems |
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"Lost" Boston Beatnik Poet Lareau Lives Nov 29, 2007
By George A. Lareau
"Lost" Boston beatnik poet George Arthur Lareau has reemerged with a book called The Game Is Played on a Delicate Foundation, and even better poems.
At age 19, Lareau was sitting in the Za Zen, the primary beatnik coffee house in Boston, notebook and pen busy.
"I hear you write poetry," someone asked. "I record poetry," Lareau corrected.
His inspirations come in packaged form and he need only copy from his mind to "record" many of his poems. He also crafts poems, though, and an interesting example of that is "The Story of Cindy," a narrative about a love relationship written in 26 limericks.
As a Boston beatnik, Lareau sold his first book of poems, The Hunting Poise, on the sidewalk in front of "Coffee Corner," a city cafeteria that served as the unofficial headquarters of the beatniks.
A keen observer of humanity, Lareau writes such poems as "Zorba's Dance:"
Money, war and nature
Are leading us to Hell.
Funny we don't see it;
Maybe just as well.
Insanity is rampant,
Hiding in the books;
Profanity's malignant
Because of hero crooks.
We walk the daily walk,
We see but look askance;
Our choice is not to balk;
Just join in Zorba's dance.
Many poems in this newly-published collection are heavily onamatapoetic, delightfully so. "One for the Road" is stuffed with non-words that evoke the sensations of sitting in a bar. "Yer Hair" uses words (mostly) but distorts them for an audible effect that flows with the poem's content (where both anger at and reverence for one's hair is slurred out).
Lareau himself dances through life, with the movements of a butterfly. He has had many careers but also has had many stretches as a "bum." He finds living at times on the edge of survival makes it economically feasible to write his books, and to do so with minimal interference from an outside life.
Otherwise, he has been social worker, financial planner, computer consultant, esl teacher, city commissioner, ad agency president, and the list goes on.
Lareau is equally innovative in photography, and currently produces wall art and model portfolios in Tucson, AZ. As a professional, he was a member of ASMP. He has a wide range of styles and subjects; one of his categories is "Ugly America."
Lareau is also active as "Sufi George," a new paradigm metaphysician and author of several books on consciousness management. These books are described on his web site, sufigeorge.net.
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