Counter-culture poet, Charles Richard Bean, died yesterday. In
1972, Mr. Bean made headline news after he was denied tenure at the University
of Buffalo, set up a tent on the grounds, and went on a hunger strike for two
weeks. It was later revealed, a number of coeds were dropping off food and
hallucinogens late at night. It was the two best weeks of his life. In his
later years, Mr. Bean became a photographer. He is credited with the phrase
"wat up wit dat?"
The year she stopped eating and working and talking, she devolved, draping cloth over mirrors, not brushing her teeth. She went from Emily Dickinson to Sylvia Plath to Anne Sexton, reading their work over and over, copying their words. A day came. She reached for a pencil... cracked egg, hot griddle. Her first poem filled two pages. She now eats oatmeal and wanton soup from the Chinese restaurant.