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| Lizzie Goddard (Author of Ed Galing Presentation) |
..... I always thought my late friend poet Ed Galing should be studied in college. And I have used his work in my creative writing classes at Endicott College. Professor Dan Sklar, a fellow lover of Galing's work, had a student who made a presentation about Galing: the man and his work.... Hope you enjoy--Doug Holder
Lizzie
Goddard
Ed Galing
Presentation
5/6/14
Ed Galing was born in 1917, died in 2007, and spent his early years in
the lower east side of New York City. He first started to write poetry when he
was a young man during the depression era. His family went through many troubles
while he was growing up and he wrote a great deal about it in his early poetry. His
family was on general relief, they lived in harsh conditions and his home even
caught fire once when he was a boy. He first became involved with poetry when
his high school English teacher, Dr. Ginsberg, got him interested when they read
some poetry in class. The young poet was intrigued. Galing said, “Poetry could
say something in a few words that prose could only do in the thousands. Poetry
allowed me to pour out my heart and soul”. He wrote many poems concerning his
experience with anti-semitism and how enraged it made him. Even though he was a
modern poet, he did not use technology to write his poems. Instead, he hand
wrote them all and did not worry about the new trends that afflicted
contemporary poetry. He wrote about whatever was on his mind and did not concern
himself with the new high tech world. Galing reflected in an interview, “I have
two grandsons, three grandchildren, and I am married to a wonderful woman. What
is there to know about Ed Galing? Just a simple man, trying to write poetry, and
perhaps trying to hear a good word about my work”. The two poems by Galing I am
going to write about are titled “Prayers” and “Obituary”. These two poems both
discuss his impending death. His poetry is very realistic
and he does not puff up his life to transform it into something magical. Ed Galing wrote about
things that concerned, affected, interested and conflicedt him. He wrote what he wanted to write.
The first poem, “Prayers” is a very deep and emotional poem to read.
Galing discusses how he feels after he has lost his wife, his religion, and how
going to these services at temple affected him even more. He discusses how his
prayers and religion are an outlet for him. The passage that touched
me was one that deals with the specter of death, “when it comes to the/ mention of the dead, my / tears wet the pages
before/me until i can't see anymore,/i sob my wife's name/ over and over again”.
After reading these lines, I really felt the emotion that Ed felt as he mourned
his wife’s death. As I read his biography, I did not think he would write such a
deep and emotional poem. This poem caught me by surprise because of it's
imagery. I pictured him alone, praying and crying to his prayer book. I imagined
tears falling from his face and dripping on his prayer book that he held on his
lap. After reading these lines I felt tremendous sympathy for Galing. He seemed
like a positive and realistic person, and so I was surprised put out his
vulnerability in his poetry. The lines that also stuck out to me were,
“i
have lost my wife/ she died this year/ i have nothing much/ to live for,/ when a
man loses his/ wife he loses it/ all”. These lines made me feel sorry for
Galing. He reveals in the poem that because he has lost his wife, his life was over as well.
I think this is one of the only poems I have read of Galing’s that discusses
love. He mostly talks about his life in New York or things in society that
concern him. It was refreshing to see him discuss love for his wife.
The second poem, “obituary” discusses Ed’s thoughts about the obituaries
that are posted in newspapers every day. His poem “obituary” stuck out to me as
something you would not normally read about in a poem. G. Tod Slone writes a
brief biography in his publication, The American Dissident, about how
Galing sent in this poem to his magazine not long before he passed away. I found this very
interesting because the poem “obituary” discusses how Galing wants to be
remembered and how an obituary portrays somebody who has died. The lines that
stood out to me the most were, “these people are great/ I like them all/ some of
the obits are very long/ some are very short/ come and read mine/ when I die/
please make sure/ I am smiling”. I took it that Galing was actually being
sarcastic. When he says “these people are great/ I like them all” he is showing
that he does not know anything about these people who have just died and that
society seems to think that putting obituaries in a paper will cause people to
connect in some way with the deceased. Galing's sarcasm is
evident throughout this poem. When he states that all the people who have
obituaries in the paper never cheated, lied or did anything bad, I noted the
irony. All of these deceased people traveled, ran for office, and had a loving
family. Galing adds these clichés to show that society wants to make everything
happy, shiny and perfect, yet that’s not how the world is at all. Galing is
commenting that these people have actually lived an imperfect life but that they
are not asking for people to like them in their obituaries or think that they
lived perfectly and happily. Death is something that in reality should not be characterized this way. From his final lines “please make sure/ I am smiling” ...I pictured a very cynical smile. He might
be smiling because he has escaped society once and for all.
Galing’s poetry is unique and very dark in its meanings. I believe the
struggles he faced through life allowed him to produce this type of poetry. Even
though he may not be well known around the world, his poetry can still be read
and means something to a lot of people. After reading his poetry, I realized how
influential he really is. Doug Holder, a professor at Endicott, writes the whole
blog posts for Ed Galing's website. Professor Holder used to talk about him a
lot in our creative writing class and even shared some of his poems with us. Ed
Galing’s poetry is unique, modern and influential for many people and will
continue to be for years to come.
......Lizzie Gordon is from Winthrop, Massachusetts. She is currently a junior studying English at Endicott College. She is involved in the Sigma Tau Delta honors society. After graduating college she hopes to become a middle school English teacher. Aside from academics, Lizzie has been a member of the Endicott College cheerleading team for the past three years. She is a pet lover and enjoys outdoor activities.
