By way of an introduction, I grew up in a house where to speak of a religion of any kind was forbidden. My father always said that people who went to church were ignorant. I also grew up knowing about the injustices perpetrated by the Massachusetts' Court System against Sacco and Vanzetti. This was exemplified as "those people" who control society, i.e., bankers, international money agencies, and government officials who handle monetary policy. So it wasn't just the Church, but also money lenders who controlled the government and people.

My father was a professional musician and survived the crash of '29 by virtue of being penniless. My mother to this day believes that anyone who chooses to pursue a career in the arts is mad.

Growing up in an Italian environment in the forties, of course, meant being involved in traditional Italian picnics. Each year the extended families came together to discuss everything from politics to poetry. I can still remember my brother sitting on Carlo Tresca's lap at one of these picnics and pulling at his beard.

Carlo Tresca became somewhat of a folk hero for my brother and I. We knew all the exciting stories about his life up until the time of his assassination.

With the advent of the talkies my father was out of work, but soon managed to find a job as an examiner in a clothing factory in Roxbury. He embraced unionism and soon became a member of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. Names like Debs, and Galleani, were household words. Dad was also one of the first subscribers to Contracorrente, one of the many Italian anarchist journals of the time. At the dinner table there always was lively conversation about the evils of big business and how the working man was exploited.

I guess my basic distrust of institutions stems form these early childhood experiences. After college, I was resolute in believing that only the artist was free as an individual to deal with oppression. Only the artist could objectify feelings to define the injustices against people.

"only to grow here!" the birds say, the leaves say, reflecting the sun

It was about this time that I became interested in the poetry of Ezra Pound and discovered that behind the "accepted" data of history there was always some conspiracy at work. Other poets also pursued this line. So it wasn't difficult for Stephen Jonas in 1968 to write:

The Spring & Summer Annual

critical times are these when bad government prevails the forces of tight & darkness contend for upper-hand, disturbing the elements, in such times the right man will find himself beneath the grass with the birds.

The poets are on record. The dominant impulse among some of them in the U.S. since the middle 50's has been without doubt one of anarchy against established beliefs and traditions of any kind. Fortunately some small magazine presses keep this fervor alive today. The question of course is: can there be a literature in the U.S. against oppression such as is in evidence in Central and Latin America? Are the struggles in Poland and El Salvador real to us?

-Raffael DeGruttota