It's Not Nostalgia

Born in Orange, N.J. in 1942, youngest of seven in an Irish-American family of cops, priests, and politicians, Lally started out playing piano and reading his poetry in coffeehouses and bars in 1959. By 1980 he wrote twenty books, including the poetry collection Rocky Dies Yellow (1974) and a collection of prose and poetry, Catch My Breath (1978). After creating several poetry reading series in D.C., New York, and L.A. in the 1970s and '80s, Lally was declared "The Godfather of Poetry" by several magazines, newspapers and fellow poets.

From "It's Not Nostalgia--It's Always There":


Mayday means a lot to me

--processions with a

statue of Our Lady &

the girls in white dresses

scattering flowers all

the way--speeches by

the priests against the

Commies who were

having their own parades--

and theirs all started in

Chicago & the fight for

the 8-hour-day--ours in

the forests of Europe &

the worshipping of May

as the start of the good

times of Spring & Summer