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Poetry Flash Reading Series


Bert Meyers Tribute: Eric Gudas, David Shaddock, Anat Silvera

22 JUNE 2023 — thursday

Poetry Flash presents a reading celebrating the publication of Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master, readers include poets Eric Gudas, David Shaddock, and Anat Silvera, the poet's daughter, in person, Art House Gallery & Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, two blocks north of Ashby BART, refreshments, free, 7:00 pm PDT (poetryflash.org).

Thank you for continuing to support Poetry Flash and our reading series.
Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master will be available at the event and online at bookshop.org/shop/poetryflash(a portion of the proceeds support Poetry Flash).

Bert Meyers: On the Life and Work of an American Master, the latest volume in The Unsung Masters Series, offers a large selection of his very best poetry alongside essays and appreciations from José Angel Araguz, Jim Bogen, Victoria Chang, Amy Gerstler, Garrett Hongo, Daniel Meyers, Barry Sanders, Ari Sherman, Maurya Simon, and Sean Singer, among others. The Unsung Masters Series exists to bring great but largely overlooked writers to new readers. This volume is edited by Dana Levin and Adele Williams.

"Bert Meyers is an American original—a brilliant poet whose use of tone and figurative language was so emotive, intelligent and nuanced, it became inimitable, became its own unique perspective on our world. I wouldn't be surprised if mid-twenty-first century scholars announce that in Bert Meyers we have overlooked the best poet of his generation." —Ilya Kaminsky
MORE ABOUT THE READERS

Eric Gudas is the author of Best Western and Other Poems, winner of the Gerald Cable Book Award, and Beautiful Monster, a chapbook. His work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, The Iowa Review, Poetry Flash, Los Angeles Review of Books, Raritan, and elsewhere. He lives in Los Angeles.

David Shaddock is a poet and psychotherapist. His most recent poetry book is A Book of Splendor: New and Selected Poems on Spiritual Themes. He has a regular column in Poetry Flash, "Poetry and Healing," and is the author of Poetry and Psychoanalysis: The Opening of the Field (Routledge), and two books on relationships and couples therapy. He lectures widely on those topics, and maintains a private practice in Berkeley.

Anat Silvera, Bert Meyers's daughter, is one of the founders of Silvera Jewelry School in Berkeley. Before and after college she studied with artists and craftsmen, apprenticing as a metalsmith and learning how to create fine beadwork. She is the author of a book on her craft, and has exhibited her work all over the U.S., including as featured artist at the Oakland Museum of Art Collector's Gallery.

The son of Romanian and Polish Jewish immigrants, Bert Meyers (1928-1979) was born in Los Angeles. Always rebellious and a questioner of authority, he dropped out of high school and became a poet. For many years he worked at manual labor jobs, including printer's apprentice, until he became a master picture framer and gilder. Here he found satisfaction in craftsmanship and attention to detail, the same approach he used in composing his poetry. Throughout those years he continued to write, feeling that a poet should be immersed in the world, and should have real world things to write about. Meyers wanted to be self-taught. He read everything he could get his hands on and had a prodigious literary memory. He frequented the vibrant circles of LA poets at the time, with Thomas McGrath and others. His fellow poet and friend Robert Mezey said, "Bert Meyers belonged to no school or coterie and had no use for fashion. He was that rarest of creatures, a pure lyric poet. His poems are very much what he was—gentle, cantankerous, reflective, passionate and wise." Although he had never taken undergraduate classes, and had no high school diploma, in 1964 he was admitted to the Claremont Graduate School on the basis of his poetic achievements. By 1967 he had a Ph.D in English Literature and was hired to teach poetry and literature at Pitzer College in Claremont, where he taught until 1978. During his life as a professor, Meyers finally had the time to focus on his writing; he also had an important and lasting influence on his students, a new generation of poets and writers, including Dennis Cooper, Amy Gerstler, Garrett Hongo, and Mauyra Simon among others.

He published at least eight collections of poetry, including Early Rain (1960), The Dark Birds (1968), Sunlight on the Wall (1976), Windowsills (1979), The Wild Olive Trees (1979). Before he died, he selected the core poems of In a Dybbuk's Raincoat: Collected Poems (2007). His widow, Odette Meyers, son Daniel Meyers, and poet Morton Marcus shepherded the book into posthumous publication. Meyers's precisely framed poems are image driven and often quite short. Noting that "the image is unequivocally at the center of his work" in her introduction to In a Dybbuk's Raincoat, Denise Levertov lamented that "Bert Meyers death has deprived us of one of the best poets of our time." (Information from bertmeyers.com)




Daily Listings

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10 AUGUST 2026 — monday

11 AUGUST 2026 — tuesday

12 AUGUST 2026 — wednesday

13 AUGUST 2026 — thursday

  • Hollie Hardy presents a six-session poetry revision workshop with the goal of refining toward publication in a generous and supportive environment, meeting August 13 to October 22, alternating Thursdays, for written feedback and small group workshops, bring new or old work, optional revision prompts also provided, online via Zoom, $475, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm (Sign up at: holliehardy.com/shop/p/poetry-revision-workshop-fall-2026)

14 AUGUST 2026 — friday

  • Artists' Television Access, City Lights, and PM Press present a four-day seven-film Guy Debord retrospective hosted by Ken Knabb, translator and radical theorist, to celebrate release of The Cinema Must Be Destroyed: The Films of Guy Debord, along with recent re-releases of other works by Ken Knabb, today's program features "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni," Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, $10, 7:00 pm (citylights.com/events/the-cinema-must-be-destroyed-the-films-of-guy-debord)
  • Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore presents Robert Hass, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and 1995-1997 US Poet Laureate, introducing his new book A Third Commonness: Essays on Poetry, Poetics, and the Natural World, in conversation with Brenda Hillman, book signing to follow, Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, 2904 College Avenue, Berkeley, free, 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm (THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT, RSVP TO JOIN WAIT LIST: mrsdalloways.com/event/2026-08-14/robert-hass-third-commonness)

15 AUGUST 2026 — saturday

  • Artists' Television Access, City Lights, and PM Press present a four-day seven-film Guy Debord retrospective hosted by Ken Knabb, translator and radical theorist, to celebrate release of The Cinema Must Be Destroyed: The Films of Guy Debord, along with recent re-releases of other works by Ken Knabb, today's program features "Guy Debord: His Art and His Time," Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia Street, San Francisco, $10, 7:00 pm (citylights.com/events/the-cinema-must-be-destroyed-the-films-of-guy-debord)
  • San Francisco Public Library Bernal Heights presents Sally Love Saunders to discuss poetic process and read from her new poetry collection Sally's Casserole, San Francisco Public Library, Bernal Heights Branch, 500 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco, free, 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm, reservation required: call (415) 355-2810, email bhemfr@sfpl.org, or sign in at the library reference desk (sfpl.org/events/2026/08/15/author-sally-love-saunders-sallys-casserole)

16 AUGUST 2026 — sunday

17 AUGUST 2026 — monday

18 AUGUST 2026 — tuesday

19 AUGUST 2026 — wednesday

20 AUGUST 2026 — thursday

21 AUGUST 2026 — friday

22 AUGUST 2026 — saturday

  • Berkeley Poetry Festival presents "Poetry Takes Root," a free community fundraiser, the celebration features poetry readings by Natasha Dennerstein, Jennifer Hasegawa, and James Cagney, along with music, dance, refreshments, community prizes, and opportunities to support Berkeley Poetry Festival; funds raised will help the organization expand its programs, partnerships, and opportunities for poets and audiences; Donkey & Goat Winery, 1340 Fifth Street, Berkeley, 2:00 pm to 4:30 pm, free/donations encouraged (For information and accessibility inquiries, email: theberkeleypoetryfestival@gmail.com, or visit www.berkeleypoetryfestival.com)

23 AUGUST 2026 — sunday

24 AUGUST 2026 — monday

25 AUGUST 2026 — tuesday

26 AUGUST 2026 — wednesday

27 AUGUST 2026 — thursday

28 AUGUST 2026 — friday

29 AUGUST 2026 — saturday

30 AUGUST 2026 — sunday

31 AUGUST 2026 — monday


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