The Mostly Unedited Poems of Ezra E. Lipschitz
Ezra Lipschitz was born in 1955, then mostly raised as a Catholic with a Jewish last name in Colma, California—a necropolis for the city of San Francisco. An early-life concoction that he claims was a short road to becoming an atheist. He completed a degree in English at UC Davis, but doesn't recall getting his diploma. He travels extensively as a folk musician and storyteller. And drinker. When he stays in one place for any amount of time, it is usually in his cabin in the woods at the foot of the Rockies in Southwestern Colorado, near the border of New Mexico.
I Shouldn't Say. . . The Mostly Unedited Poems of Ezra E. Lipschitz is his first book in a trilogy—a trilogy he didn't want to put out. However, Nathan Brown (whom he often unaffectionately refers to as "the laureate"), after reading much of the material, asked his permission to do it for him, because the timely pieces about Donald Trump were too important. Like Brown, Ezra also has a daughter, but one that he didn't meet until she was eighteen—another unusual aspect of his life that he's shockingly honest about, and the one that served as the basis for this unlikely friendship.
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There are four chapters. The first is "The Home I Never Quite Had." The second is "Adam's Broken Rib," a section dealing with the wiles and difficulties of human relationship between the sexes. The third is "Holy Days," that covers the fall season of 2016 that ushered in the presidency of Donald Trump. The final chapter is called "The Fourth Horseman." It is a point-blank look at the insanity of a narcissistic megalomaniac becoming the leader of the free world.
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That he is a prolific poet goes hand in hand with his cantankerous and contentious soul. And, when Brown approached him about this project, Ezra initially said, No. However, he later later agreed, saying, Well. . . as long as I don't have to edit the damn things. And no readings. He would do no readings. Poetry readings are "insufferable marathons of the waning spirit and dying soul" as far as he is concerned. So, don't bother asking again. Brown, however, insists that the world will be better off with these terribly raw and honest poems in it.
Arse Poetica: The Mostly Unedited Poems of Ezra E. Lipschitz is Ezra's second book in the trilogy.
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After the splash and subsequent fallout of his first collection (that he did not want to publish), I Shouldn’t Say. . . further arm-twisting has convinced Ezra to reach back into some older material that confronts his feelings about presidents, poetry as a genre, but also poets as writers, performers, and the general problems for society that they are.
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The book is divided into four chapters. The first is "I Shouldn’t Have. . ." The second is "Some Pretty How Town." The third is "Pig Feet on Wall Street," a section that begins to get a bit more political. And the final chapter is called "God Song." Therefore… release the inner curmudgeon.
Apocalypse Soon: The Mostly Unedited Poems of Ezra E. Lipschitz is the third book in the trilogy—a trilogy he did not necessarily want to put out.
The book is divided into three chapters. The first is “A Serious Laughter.” The second is “Among the Ruins.” And the final chapter is called “According to St. John the Divine.” The poems in this collection speak to climate change and its effects on coming generations, and they seek to laugh among the ruins. The closing chapter, however, is a direct “call and response” to various verses from every chapter in the Book of Revelation. A journey likened unto Nathan Brown’s early book Not Exactly Job, in which he does the same thing with the Book of Job.
The fact that Ezra is a prolific poet goes hand in hand with his cantankerous and contentious soul. And, when Brown approached him about letting him do this trilogy, Lipschitz initially said “No.” However, he later agreed, saying, “Well… as long as I don’t have to edit the damn things.” And no readings. He would do no readings. Poetry readings are “insufferable marathons of the waning spirit and dying soul” as far as he is concerned. So, don’t bother asking again.