LIVING POETRY (Slow Lightning Lit Publications)

"Murray Mednick is one of the foremost Writer's of our time." A poet in NYC during the beat era, he despised reading his own poetry at open mics, and so made a natural progression into writing for the theatre. Over a career that spans more than half a century, and known best as founder of The Padua Playwrights Festival and Workshop, Mednick's work (over fifty plays) has earned him an Obie Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Rockefeller Grants, numerous citations for a variety of his first run works, and several prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards. His LIVING POETRY is, of a depth of experience, intellect, and reflection that we rarely encounter in a first collection. “Murray Mednick’s Living Poetry is both a startling debut and a culminating distillation of a life that could not have yielded anything other than these dauntingly memorable poems. All of the greatest dramatists wrote their plays either as verse or prose poetry, but Mednick’s poems stand apart from his extraordinary plays as a summit few others have attained. A sternly exultant, street-level ferocity encapsulates his poems within a clairvoyant wisdom that is second to none. “The owl of Minerva flies at dusk.” Any readers who find themselves caught in the throes of regret or wistfulness will find their longed-for succor in the visionary candor of Mednick’s indomitable poems.” –Bill Mohr, Editor,Poetry Loves Poetry “Dip into this book and be beguiled by the world inside Murray’s head, vast as the cosmos, and funny as hell.” –Darrell Larson, actor, director, COYOTE inThe Coyote Cycle