Essays
Don't Touch the Poet: The Life and Times of Joel Oppenheimer
Jeffery Beam
Joel Oppenheimer, who died in October 1988, strove to make earth confess its "stolen bits of God." This biography, which grew out of a hypnotherapist's sessions with Oppenheimer as he attempted to lessen his tobacco habit, brings attention to this poet who received much less than he deserved during his life. Oppenheimer, a student at Black Mountain College during its Charles Olson / Paul Goodman heyday, a figure in the Greenwich Village scene most of his life, and a notable critic for The Village Voice, published mostly through small, but distinguished, presses such as The Jargon Society and Perishable Press.
The book begins with his death, and the text of his last poem "animal." In the poem a young goat reaches unsuccessfully for some green leaves tempting it nearby, and an old dog tangled in undergrowth by his lead spends a whole day without water and later runs away. In the final verse Oppenheimer describes the tumor pressing against his cerebellum "afraid i won't / make it looking / at the goat / the empty doghouse." It's a perfect Oppenheimer poem. His poems all have a steely strength. They are inner and quiet and joyful and welcoming all. They are unstaged and dramatic in turn. They are lyrical and subtly narrative. One sees in his last poem a sterling example of his polished ear, and the natural, virile, compressed rhythm which make his poems so powerful on the page, but fully alive when read aloud. This man knew his periods and commas. His breath. Gilmore has done a fine job in capturing a tender, humane, difficult and complex man and poet.
Don't Touch the Poet constructs a sympathetic yet honest portrait of this quiet, yet demonstrative man. It also begins the work of establishing Oppenheimer as a poet to remember, to save from loss. Gilmore uses poem texts effectively to trace the development of Oppenheimer's work, but also to analyze what made him tick as a person and a writer. The many friends, colleagues, and family members who were interviewed for the project, and a seven-year study of Oppenheimer's papers enliven the book. I recommend this to lovers of poetry as a fine supplement to reading the poems. The poems are the Fiddler's Green. Gilmore carefully leads the way.