The fine poet, activist, and city-enlightener turned 90 on Tuesday 3.24.09. He’s still sharp, thoughtful, wise; he can still teach, is my point. As demonstration of which, The S.F. Chronicle published an interview, which I commend to you.

Here’s a nibble:

Q: Why do you prefer the term wide-open poetry to Beat poetry?

A: I never wrote ‘Beat’ poetry. Wide-open poetry refers to what Pablo Neruda told me in Cuba in 1950 at the beginning of the Fidelista revolution: Neruda said, ‘I love your wide-open poetry.’

He was either referring to the wide-ranging content of my poetry, or, in a different mode, to the poetry of the Beats. Wide-open poetry also refers to the ‘open form’ typography of a poem on the page. (A term borrowed from the gestural painting of the Abstract Expressionists.)

Q: Can writing be taught?

A: It has to be taut.