My father Richard Krech recently went in for a major back surgery. The outcome has been overwhelmingly positive, better it seems than was anticipated. I spent some time in California with the rest of my family and him. We talked of many things and spent the better part of an afternoon going over much of his writing. He is a lawyer by profession but also and before that, a poet.
The ‘Preface’ to his 1976 The Incompleat Works of Richard Krech reads
you must think of it as a dance
the Way the Players move
from table to tablethe Way they take each other home.
learning survival
.the cool world outside our fingertips
just shot away . . .the tape recorder, hypodermic needle
just end-points of a culture
blasted by technology.find the Real path out of the jungle,
miss neither forest nor trees.
leave no fingerprints
at the scene of the crime,fly safely
and take care of your brother.your sister is waiting on the bed
or the bar stool.for your rough hands and soft mouth.
the pull of gravity affecting tides.
civilizations lose their grip
as years pass.the 8 ball heading towards the pocket
After a ’25 year line break’ he returned to writing poetry on the 18th of March 2001 with this
The statue with no face and broken legs
no longer stares out at the long green valley.The frightened men have shattered their own
image. They
diminish themselves as they step beyond
their banal legacy of oppression
and turn to destroying the very history of the world.The statue no longer stares out at Bamiyan valley.
The enlightened gaze takes in the reflection
still.
From a small chapbook published in 2005 he includes a number of his more recent poems including Ecological Hegemony
The morning glory
would take over the world if you let it,
she saidI failed to see
any downside
to that proposition
& resolved not to stand
in its way.
Tags: family, poetry, richard krech
thinking good thoughts for your father if he is continuing his recovery. i really love his poetry you posted.
Wow, your dad sounds cool ! I hope he recovers well.
I just watched Slam ( which i thought i had seen but never had… though i’ve been a fan of Saul for many many years).
That was just such a great film !
Thank you for sharing your father’s words, and I hope for his speedy recovery.
I particularly love the last poem. I nearly have it memorized. Worth having in the head for easy access.
i hope his recovery continues to go well. his poetry, the Preface you have here, is quite allegorical. i’m very fond.
i’d love to know the next time you’re in the area.
i just watched this a week ago, after it was leant to me ages upon ages ago!
i liked it much more than i thought i would.
He is cool, thanks.
Slam is such a good film. They actaully filmed it in a prison, which I think is a total trip. So most of the inmates are actualy prison inmates.
Glad you like it. I think he has some really great stuff.
Isn’t it great. It reminds me of a Haiku, obviously not in form, but rather in how it develops the idea.
Glad you liked it. I’ll update next time I’m by the Bay.
Yeah , I knew that.
It has such a documentary film to it.
It’s really very good.
Saul is a powerful powerful man.