Poetry Chapbook Launch Reception | no! by Malcolm Miller

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no!

Malcolm Miller

In the two dozen engaging, provocative, and quick-witted poems of no! Salem-born, Beat-generation poet Malcolm Miller cries a resounding “yes!” to everyday beauty, the joy of living, the insights of imagination, and unexpected moments of heightened awareness. These fast-moving, plainspoken poems once again make a powerful case for the rediscovery and elevation of a prolific writer who died in obscurity in Salem public housing in 2014.

Selected, edited, and with an introduction by Miller’s literary executor and champion, Rod Kessler, Professor Emeritus at Salem State University, the poems of no! recall a boyhood midnight swim in Salem harbor, recount an imaginary meeting with film director Orson Welles in Rome, present a stunning revelation from a philosophy department, and share an overheard quip from an aspirin tablet. “I am easy to get along with,” Miller promises, inviting the reader to “stagger with wonder / at existence” and to “have a great / joy in the world / without knowing exactly why.”

no! includes the poem “I remember,” which received a first prize from the International Lawrence Durrell Literary Society in 2017, as well as several poems highlighted in the documentary film, Unburying Malcolm Miller, by Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse. The chapbook supplements What I Am Always Waiting For, the posthumous selection of Miller’s poems by Kessler and a team of local poets (Grayson Books, 2020).

no! is available from Salem-based publisher Derby Wharf Light Box. The 32-page booklet is a compact 4-3/4 by 6-1/4 inches, modeled after the legendary City Lights Poetry Series.

Order your copy of this booklet today, $10 postage paid: www.derbywharflightbox.com. For more information, email javy.awan@gmail.com.

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Malcolm Miller, 1930-2014 (photo by Rod Kessler)

Salem-Born Malcolm Miller

Delivers a Lasting Poetry Magic

Malcolm Miller, a Salem-born, Beat generation poet, unabashedly engages, entertains, amuses, instructs, surprises, and provokes in the 24 newly released, plainspoken poems of no! Selected, edited, and with an introduction by Rod Kessler, Professor Emeritus at Salem State University, the poems once again make a powerful case for the rediscovery and elevation of a prolific writer who died in obscurity in Salem public housing in 2014.

The poems of no! cry a resounding “yes!” to everyday beauty, the joy of living, the insights of imagination, and unexpected moments of heightened awareness. “I am easy to get along with,” Miller promises in his poem, “the music,” and he invites the reader to “stagger with wonder / at existence….”

In other poems in this chapbook, the fourth in a series published by Salem-based Derby Wharf Light Box, Miller describes an imaginary encounter with film director Orson Welles in Rome, laments the suicide of a celebrated professor of literature, recalls a midnight swim as a boy in Salem Harbor, and exhorts the reader to “have a great / joy in the world / without knowing exactly why.” The selection includes the poem “I remember,” which received a first prize from the International Lawrence Durrell Literary Society in 2017.

Miller dedicated his life to poetry, published two collections in Canada early in his career, self-published more than 50 titles locally in Salem, filed a poetry column in a weekly Salem alternative newspaper, and left a legacy of more than 3,000 poems. After Miller’s death, Kessler assembled a team of local poets who pored through the entire oeuvre to produce the well-received selection of poems, What I Am Always Waiting For, published by Grayson Books in 2020. This rediscovery of Miller’s brilliant poems is the subject of a one-hour documentary film, Unburying Malcolm Miller, by Kevin Carey and Mark Hillringhouse, available on YouTube.

An alumnus of St. John’s Preparatory School, Miller graduated from Canada’s prestigious McGill University, where he established a lifelong friendship with the poet-singer Leonard Cohen. He also served in the U.S. Navy and is buried in the veterans section of Salem’s Greenlawn Cemetery.

The Derby Wharf Light Box chapbook series is modeled after the legendary City Lights Poetry Series published by renowned poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The booklets measure a compact 4-3/4 by 6-1/4 inches. To order a copy of no!, priced at $10, postage paid, visit the Derby Wharf Light Box website, www.derbywharftlightbox.com.