Snow bites my numb toes as I walk over your frozen edge. Rusting arc of the drawbridge and the aqua of freedom glory that swept away the stench of the bleak history onto open Ontarios.
The motion of mighty waves has frozen into a nudist grin, miles and miles of white silence that has eaten your limbs. The blackbird of shiny eyes and velvet features perching atop your broad shoulders, you lay bloodless, in tears, a young widow, your own eyes besmirched from the loss of flaming fish of infernal colors. I turned my head to the doors of hunger in your white flesh, my fingers roving over the mouth of the wide conch shell of your navel from where once fluids flowed, Ohio myrtle syrup diluted with an aroma of Oriental poppies. One by one they wriggled out of it and slithered onto their wailing wives . . . I dipped my mouth into the saucer below and fell headlong, a wayward hunter, into the depths of your hidden estuaries that can feed almost everyone on this earth . . . I saw you shudder like a lioness into an erratic groaning, about to push me off the edge. “Do not do this. Do not confuse my powers as a lover with my love for you . . .” The flurries of Midwest sullied my face, my black coat dotted from the flaming flakes of Ohio snow, the winds tousled my dark head as I slept on the floral plains of your wide belly like a baby in a womb seeing his youth in a dream . . .
https://www.amazon.com/dp/8182500915 This is third thunderous poetry collection by Yuyutsu Sharma written during 1990 Democratic Upsurge in Nepal. "Yuyutsu's poetry has long been a part of the Nepalese consciousness: we use his more aphoristic lines as a paradigm of contemporary Nepali political and social changes." --The Kathmandu Post "Yuyutsu R.D. brings to the Indian readers a distinct flavor of the Nepalese landscape and culture, in a sequence of poems that pulsate with needle-sharp images-Equally sensitive is his language that, scrupulously avoids stilted diction-words or phrases. His writing is so densely imagistic that he holds reader's attention all the way through. Behind plethora of packed images is a genuine concern for the human predicament-the trials and tribulations of the destitute everywhere. Hunger is the theme that runs as an under current-hunger that gnaws into the vitals of both humans and animals." -Shiv K. Kumar in The Hindustan Times
followed by Yuyutsu Sharma & David Austell reading their fresh work at
Montauk Club, Brooklyn The Montauk Club 25 Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 Phone: 646 591 9951, 917 293 9334
Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu Sharma will share his recent work. After years of travelling the globe as an itinerant poet, Yuyutsu Sharma has earned the respect and admiration of thousands of people all over the world. Yuyu will unravel the secrets of Himalayan spirituality and read new poems written during his recent stay in Brooklyn.
American poet and Editor of Eternal Snow, David Austell will read his new work and discuss the anthology
The Readings from the contributors to the anthology, Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty-Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma will take place.
Saturday, Dec 9, at 6: 00 — 8:00 pm,Eternal Snow Readings in New York followed by Yuyutsu Sharma & David Austell Reading their fresh work at Montauk Club, Brooklyn The Montauk Club 25 Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217 Phone: Phone: 646 591 9951, 917 293 9334
Friday, Dec 8, at 7: 00 pm-9:00, Yuyutsu Sharma reading at Poets Aloud, BJ Spoke Gallery, 299 Main Street, Huntington, New York 11743 Host: Kelly J. Powell Seating always available, limited parking, so arrive early. Admission is free; $3 donation preferred. Refreshments available.
Tuesday, Dec 5, at 6: 30 pm, Erie Launch of Eternal Snow;Yuyutsu Sharma visits Poetry Night on his international tour with the anthology Eternal Snow! Book Signing. Plus poetry open mic. Upstairs for this event. Chuck Joy, poet host. Calamari’s Squid, 1317 State St. Erie, Pennsylvania 16501 Phone: 8144594276 http://www.calamaris-squidrow.com/
Sunday, Dec 3, at 7:00 pm: Ohio Launch Of Eternal Snow. The Anthology contributors read from the book followed by Yuyutsu Sharma reading his new work. Coffee and pastries served. Saint Pio Fine Arts Institute And Conservatory. 33 3rd St SE, Barberton, Ohio 44203 Hosted by Thomas Jenney Phone: Call (330) 328-7619
Saturday, Dec 2, at 4:30 – 7:00 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma reading at Exchange House, Akron, 760 Elms St. Akron Ohio 44310 Hosted by Noor Hindi (234) 312-9709
Thursday, Nov 30, at 7: 00 pm, Yuyutsu SharmaPoet Gold & Judith Tulloch. Reading to be followed by Q&A. Organized by Calling All Poets, program host Mike JurkovicTown Crier 378 Main St. Beacon, New York, 12508 Phone: 845 855 1300
Saturday, November 18, at 2 pm until 4 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma Reading with David Austell & Barbara Novack at Oceanside Library 30 Davison Ave, Oceanside, NY 11572, USA. Hosted Peter V. Dugan, 516-287-5239 http://www.oceansidelibrary.com
Tuesday, November 14, at 6:30 pm, Yuyutsu Sharma reading at The Long Island Launch of Eternal Snow, Port Jefferson Free Library, 631 473-0022 100 Thompson Street Port Jefferson, NY, 11777, 631-473-0022 Fax: 631-473-2903 info@portjefflibrary.org Hosted by Kat Lamberg
Monday, November 13, at 7 pm until 9 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma Reading as Feature Poetat Poetry Express Berkeley. Hosted by Poetry Express Berkeley, at Himalayan Flavors, 1585 University Avenue, Nearest Cross St. California, Host: Jim Barnard, poetryexpress@gmail.com, www.poetryexpressed.com
Saturday, November 11, Noon to 2.30 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma Reading and workshop Berkeley Public Library, Hosted by Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA Host: Isobel Schneider, ischneider@cityofberkeley.info, https://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/
Monday, Oct 23, at 7:00 pm: Yuyutsu Sharma Reading at Boston Launch of Eternal Snow with Timothy Gager at Out of the Blue Gallery, in the Stone Soup Poetry Series, at 541 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. Host: Chad Parenteau https://outoftheblueartgallery.com
Saturday, Oct 21, at 6 pm to 9 pm Brooklyn Launch of Yuyutsu Sharma’s Eternal Snow and A Workshop with the Himalayan Poet, Hosted by Yoga Sole, Windsor Terrace Brooklyn – 254 Windsor Place – Brooklyn, NY 11215 Tel: 718.541.1382 , Reading$ 10pp Workshop $25pp Reading included) www.yogasole.comHost : Evalena Leedy evalena@yogasole.com
Otis Kidwell Burger in front of her townhouse, where she has lived for nearly 60 years.CreditYana Paskova for The New York Times
“Poetry Reading, 6 p.m.,” read the sign taped outside the doorway of the Bethune Street townhouse where Otis Kidwell Burger, 93, has lived for nearly 60 years.
Inside, from a rocker cushioned with red velvet, Ms. Kidwell Burger presided over the dozen or so poets gathered in her parlor, a cozy haven with Oriental rugs, a working fireplace and shelves of old books and general clutter.
Ms. Kidwell Burger, a writer and sculptor, lives with her two cats in the 1836 building that she and her then-husband, the late literary agent Knox Burger, bought in 1959. Its upper floors served as a rooming house, with rooms starting at $8 per week, she said.
“It was full of strange folks,” she said.
The room next to the magician was rented as a writing space by the author and activist Jane Jacobs, who worked on her seminal book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” there, Ms. Kidwell Burger said.
“Jane lived around the corner on Hudson Street, but she had a house full of teenagers and it was quieter here,” said Ms. Kidwell Burger, who joined forces with Ms. Jacobs in the ’60s to resist projects threatening the small-town character of the neighborhod
She recalled being with Ms. Jacobs at a 1968 public hearing for Robert Moses’s plan to build a downtown expressway.
“I said to her, ‘Is there any way we can stop this?’” Ms. Kidwell Burger recalled. “She leaped onto the stage and pulled the stenographer’s notes from the machine and was immediately arrested.”
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Ms. Kidwell Burger has written several books, as well as poetry, science fiction and book reviews for magazines.CreditYana Paskova for The New York Times
“It hit the papers and brought attention to this stupid plan and people thought better of it,” she said.
Ms. Kidwell Burger long ago cleared out the rooming house operation upstairs but continued to rent out two upper floors. During the ’80s, the actress Jennifer Grey was a tenant, so Matthew Broderick was often around, and other young celebrities.
“I remember Madonna sitting on my stoop,” said Ms. Kidwell Burger, who lived as a child at the top of Todt Hill in Staten Island. She was a zoology major at Cornell University and settled afterward in Greenwich Village.
She and her husband hobnobbed with writers like Norman Mailer and Kurt Vonnegut, a family friend who set part of his novel, “Mother Night,” at the Bethune Street townhouse.
Ms. Kidwell Burger raised two daughters, made and sold her sculptures, and wrote several books, as well as poetry, science fiction and book reviews for numerous magazines.
Her latest book came out this year “Cats, Love & Other Surprises,” illustrated by her daughter Katherine Wilcox Burger. She has a docket of public readings lined up.
Ms. Kidwell Burger, who turns 94 on Nov. 9, writes on a Smith Corona Sterling typewriter at a foldout desk. Her assistant then reads the work and types it into a computer.
Ms. Kidwell Burger is still an outspoken activist. She does not care for President Donald J. Trump, and she has been known to walk the neighborhood holding a cardboard sign with the message, “Nasty Man, Lock Him Up.”
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Yuyutsu Sharma, left, reads his poem at Ms. Kidwell Burger’s weekly gathering.CreditYana Paskova for The New York Times
She is also territorial. After flowers were recently stolen from her sidewalk planter, she taped a warning note “to the creep who keeps stealing these plants.”
Her Sunday evening invitation-only salons have a Bohemian feel. Many of the poets date back to the Village in the ’50s, and Ms. Kidwell Burger can reminisce about longshoremen working the piers and seaman living in local rooming houses and frequenting salty bars. She can recall freight trains clattering by on the tracks that are now part of the High Line.
“Now it’s one of the more expensive places in the city to live,” she said. “The billionaires are pushing out the millionaires.”
On a recent Sunday night, part of the reading was devoted to a cache of 45 sonnets that Ms. Kidwell Burger wrote some 50 years ago and then left in a drawer until dusting them off recently.
“They’re going to start comparing you to Edna St. Vincent Millay,” said Michael Graves, a poet and salon guest that night.
Mr. Graves then read a poem of his about an undocumented immigrant living in New York. Erik La Prade read his poem about the poet W.H. Auden, who lived on St. Marks Place in the East Village.
Shelley Seccombe read her poem “Interlude,” which ruminated on the challenges and rewards of negotiating New York’s alternate-side parking regulations. Yuyutsu Sharma, a Nepalese poet who treks in the Himalayas, read his poem about earning the right to be called a New Yorker.
Of course, as the old Village’s radical and political roots give way to the forces of soaring real estate, Ms. Kidwell Burger’s townhouse, which she bought for $30,000, is now appraised at $12 million, she said.
“People are constantly calling and leaving me notes asking if I want to sell,” said Ms. Kidwell Burger. She’s not interested. “The good lord isn’t making any more Village townhouses.”
