Poet Ed Galing: A Poet of the Greatest Generation

This is the website of the poet Ed Galing. Galing, who was born in 1917, and spent his early years in the Lower East Side of New York City, has been widely published in the small press. In his 90's, he still writes everyday and he was recently featured in "Rattle" magazine as a poet of the "Greatest Generation." This blog created by his friend and fellow poet Doug Holder is a tribute to this small press legend. *For the introduction to ED Galing go to Dec. 2006 in the archives.

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

The Boardwalk by Ed Galing

THE BOARDWALK

In those days we went
To the beach by train,
We would disembark
And walk the boards
Smellin’ the sea breezes,
Admiring the way the
Swelling waves hit the shore,
And curled away in
Rhythmic motion.

We were young
And we would get to the
Sand and open our umbrella
Shedding our outer
Clothes.

We had our bathing suits on
Ready for the dip
In the ocean.
We laughed a lot
In those days
I remember
Admiring the way
We both looked
For young flesh is so beautiful.
I flexed my muscles
And grinned as she snapped away
We got sunburned
We ate our hotdogs on the boardwalk
Made love in secret under a blanket.
We soaked in the juices
And loved ourselves,
And to hell with tomorrow.

--Ed Galing

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

Pushcarts and Peddlars by Ed Galing

(To order click on picture) "Ed Galing is a poet and writer who remains alarmingly prolific well into his 90's. Like Charles Reznikoff, Alfred Kazin, and Henry Roth he writes about the streets of New York, what it is to be a Jew and a man, and he does it without affectation. His poetry is stripped down to its essence, and it speaks loudly of the Greatest Generation that graced our country and inevitably left us. Read Galing for his history, his artistry, his humanity." Doug Holder, Ibbetson Street Press