The Wurster Interviews, Part 7: The Early Years of PPE

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The Second Wave

You remember the five founders of PPE. The "second wave" refers to the people who were real important to PPE who were not founders, but who came along shortly thereafter.

Before I moved to Pittsburgh, I was bored in Harrisburg. I could've moved either to Pittsburgh or Towson, Md. (part of Baltimore). I knew more people in Pittsburgh; that's why I came here. One of these people was Dave (a.k.a. "Flash") Gordon, who had been a fraternity brother of mine at Dickinson. The other was Paul (a.k.a. "PL") Manion, who I met through Flash. Through these two, I met Dick Duronio. He was the first person I met in Pittsburgh who I didn't already know. A group of us went to the Three Rivers Arts Festival together. He was in that group.

Dick was an interesting guy. He had read Aristotle's Poetics and could talk about it. He had a chapbook published by Arnold Linton's Hermit Press. Linton was more of a concrete poet, but he really liked Dick's stuff so he published it.

Dick was a great guy and a really important member of PPE. He had spent time in both New York and San Francisco. He knew Bob Kaufman. Kaufman took a vow of silence for 15 years. He wrote and published but didn't speak. Here's a Bob Kaufman poem for you:

There ain't no piano
for Lucky Luciano.
There's no telephone
for Al Capone.
There ain't no jazz
in Alcatraz.
Just the same dark waters
rushing against the shore.

When Dick was in New York, Cecil Taylor lived above him. Now, Cecil was forever practicing and composing on the piano, and as you may know he had a very percussive style of playing. So when Cecil went to Woodstock for the summer, Dick was able to sleep.

Dick died young due to consequences of substance abuse. We did a memorial reading for him at Hemingway's that was attended by his ex-wife Phyllis and his son John. We were pleased to be able to let John know how well-loved and respected his father was.

Nancy Gavrilas was another fine poet. Nancy got involved shortly after we founded PPE. She was a great teacher who taught at CCAC Boyce. (She knew Anne Wyma and Trudy Scott.) Among Nancy's students were Christine Telfer, Linda Lee Harper, and Jimmy Cvetic. Nancy suffered from post-polio syndrome.

John Metcalfe was part of a huge Pittsburgh Irish clan of Metcalfes and Feeneys. John was an editor for the Pitt News as an undergraduate. He went into the Army and served his army time in Germany. When he returned to Pittsburgh, he was married to a German woman named Corey and had a son named Jack. Once back in Pittsburgh, he decided to produce a poetry reading series at the Encore II jazz club downtown. He set out to locate poets through some of the poets who had worked on the Pitt News with him such as Felice Newman. The poetry readings took place on Monday night each week.

I read with John Eskridge. That's how John and I met. John Eskridge was a good poet. He taught philosophy at CCAC Main Campus and was the drummer for Harold Betters. The band that week was the Chico Hamilton Quintet with Arthur Blythe on alto sax. Even though he was offered the night off because it was poetry night, Chico insisted on fulfilling the terms of his contract, which called for performances on six nights of the week, Monday through Saturday. I was thrilled to be sharing the stage with one of my musical heroes.

Subsequently, Corey returned to Germany with Jack. John Metcalfe went to Germany to try to get her to come back to the States, but Corey refused. A divorce followed.

Now, all three of these poets, Dick, Nancy, and John Metcalfe, participated in our PPE workshops and other activities. John and Nancy were very compatible for a number of reasons. They got married and started a small literary press called Cottage Wordsmiths. They published my first book, The Cruelty of the Desert, which was not only my first book, it was the first book published by Cottage Wordsmiths. Another of their poetry titles was Near the Narcotic Sea by Joseph Lisowski.

Eventually Nancy's post-polio syndrome became more debilitating, and she and John moved to Florida. Nancy returned from grocery shopping one day and found that John had died peacefully in the big daddy chair. Nancy has two fine sons, both of whom served in the Special Forces. She lives near one of them today, in the state of Virginia.

Those three were the key members of the "second wave" of PPE. Without going into a lot of detail, there are other significant poets who could be considered the "third wave" — or to have come aboard between the second and third waves. These would include John Schulman, Mary Tisera, Curt DeBor, Lou Horvath, Frank Correnti, and Susan Jacobson.

Next in issue 10: Special guest interview