RAGGED LION – A JOINT PUBLICATION OF THE SMITH PUBLISHERS & VAGABOND PRESS Brooklyn/Ellensburg 605 E. 5th Ave., Ellensburg, Washington 98926 © 1999 John Bennett

THANKS TO

Mike Schapiro for suggesting the title of this book. A very special thanks to Vince Silvaer, Jack Micheline’s son and founder of the Jack Micheline Foundation for the Arts, and to Matt Gonzalez, publisher of Micheline’s last book, Sixty-seven Poems for Downtrodden Saints; Ragged Lion would be a shadow of itself if it hadn’t been for their generous sharing of information and material. Thanks, too, to Len Fulton of Small Press Review for furnishing mailing lists; to A.D. Winans, who chipped in beyond the call of duty; and to Wayne Miller for his “Wild Bunch” photo collages.

CREDITS

A number of poems and prose pieces in Ragged Lion were written for and/or read at one of two memorials for Jack Micheline in March of 1998 — one in New York City, the other in San Francisco. In addition, some pieces saw previous publication in: Beat Scene; Big Scream; Bloomsbury Review; The Burial of Longing Beneath the Blue Neon Moon; Chiron Review; Jawbone; Next; The Vagabond Anthology. There are a number of photographers whose work appears in these pages; they have been credited in captions accompanying their photographs. The captionless photograph on page three of Micheline playing harmonica was taken by Jim Lang.

Front cover photography: Steve Wilson. Cover design: Dick Elliott. Rights to material in this book shall revert upon publication to the individual authors, artists and photographers who created it. Editor: John Bennett. Layout: Jeff Cleveland. Library of Congress Catalog Card #: 99-070926 – ISBN: 0912824-39-5 (cloth) – ISBN: 0912824-40-9 (paper)