Pandemic Soul Music

by S.A. Griffin, Robin Lynne Griffin (Illustrations), Richard Modiano (Introduction)

The poetry of S.A. Griffin, with its extraordinary range of subjects, its wild shattering flights, like a Roman candle that explodes the blue sky of appearances, and its breathtaking plunges, like an uncontrollable bathysphere into the deepest sea of dreams, seems to me well equipped to disperse the stale mythological fog that still obscures our desperate glance into the future, and to restore to us a truer vision of our infinite capacities for transforming the world. While you read these poems never forget that S.A. Griffin writes from his heart by way of his mind and expresses his art with his breath. - Richard Modiano - from his Introduction.

107 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2022

About the author

April 2025

It's an afraid new world, much has happened since my last entry here two years ago. A few new books...

My son Spencer Lane Griffin published his first full book of children's poetry, Poem Pie in June 2024. His mother Sharon Grish Griffin created the wonderful illustrations that accompany Spencer's fanciful, fantastic verse. I, the proud dad, published and edited on my Rose of Sharon imprint.

Most recently I co-edited the latest Sparring Artists Annual 2: Literary Anthology of Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts with my poet pal and partner in beatific crime Richard Modiano for publisher and fellow traveler Daniel Yaryan. Featuring an international cast of characters, it's quite an amazing collection of poetry, lit, art and photos, Daniel doing a masterful job of layout and design. Featured artist Mike Street created the amazing cover art.

Pandemic Soul Music is available from my intrepid publishers at Punk Hostage Press. This book includes drawings by my late sister Robin Lynne Griffin and an intro by my poetry pal Richard Modiano.

Major anthology of California poets Beat Not Beat, is available for purchase!!! From publisher Eric Morago's Moon Tide Press, this anthology is the brainchild of California Beat Poet Laureate Rich Ferguson. Edited by Rich Ferguson, S.A. Griffin, Alexis Rhone Fancher and former San Francisco Poet Laureate Kim Shuck. This amazing anthology circles around Beat poetics with a sharp focus on California poets and boasts an insanely impressive list of contributors including Wanda Coleman, Linda J. Albertano, Richard Brautigan, Brendan Constantine, Rick Lupert, Ameilie Frank, Philomene Long, Dr. Mongo, Jack Hirschman, Soheyl Dahi, Tate Swindell, Bob Flanagan, Diane di Prima, Tongo Eisen-Martin, A.D. Winans, Philip Levine, Philip Lamantia, Pleasant Gehman, Iris Berry, A. Razor, Pam Ward, A.K. Toney, francEyE, Doug Knott, Mike M Mollett, Daniel Yaryan, Mike Sonksen, Laurel Ann Bogen, Tony Scibella, Frank T. Rios, Stuart Z. Perkoff, Neal & Carolyn Cassady, Charles Bukowski, Harold Norse, Bob Kaufman, Ellyn Maybe, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Amy Uyematsu, Richard Modiano, devorah major, Bucky Sinister, Joanne Kyger, Ann Menebroker, Lynne Thompson, Luis Rodriguez, Luivette Resto, Scott Wannberg, Jamie Asaye FitzGerald, David L. Ulin, Majid Naficy, Annette & Dennis Cruz, Michael C Ford, Jack Brewer, Jim Morrison, Kenneth Patchen, Kenneth Rexroth, Will Alexander... you get the picture, it's loaded! A book you'll want in your poetry library.

New from my Rose of Sharon imprint, Good Madness is Hard to Come By co-written by Michael Lane Bruner and yours truly, S.A. Griffin, Why Must You Say These Things Out Loud? by Carma Bum brother and UNLV professor Michael Lane Bruner and Hard to Say in a Way That Might Be Heard (2021) by Michael Lane Bruner and Mike M Mollett.

Books, books, books... the follow up to Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel, Harvey Keitel by John Dorsey, S.A.Griffin and the late great Scott Wannberg, aptly entitled, Harvey Korman Harvey Korman Harvey Korman from Spartan Press, lost bastard chronicles poetry and art by mark hartenbach on my Rose of Sharon imprint, my book Dreams Gone Mad With Hope published by Punk Hostage Press... all can be found and purchased on Amazon. Like, where else, right?

Released in December 2016, The Hideous Bible by The Lost Bums, what is left of The Lost Tribe and The Carma Bums after the loss of our electric pal Scott Wannberg -- The Lost Bums: Mike Bruner, S.A. Griffin, Doug Knott and Mike M. Mollett. The Hideous Bible (Rose of Sharon Press) is exactly what it sounds like; gospel singing from strange corners of the cranial cathedral. If you're interested in a copy, back channel me. Not available online.

Posted previously, another time...

Been publishing/editing on my Rose of Sharon imprint since 1988 beginning with Sharktalk by Doug Kn

Reviews

[Daniel Yaryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Poet S.A. Griffin’s new book Pandemic Soul Music is an eclectic jukebox of cross-pollinating poetic hits that traverse many different genres. There’s Venice West Beat Generation lineage, an ample detection of strong DADA DNA, and a foundation springboard from west-coast punk rock lyricism sent into the future via Jello Biafra era Dead Kennedys or the Los Angeles band X. Therein are words that jump out at you with the frenetic energy of a late mid-century coffeehouse denizen leaping up on the table unannounced, unapologetically and with unrivaled determination to capture your ear — successfully accomplishing this intent. The words of these newly released poems carry substance, rebellion and demand a neo renaissance.

Moreover, Pandemic Soul Music communicates with the reader in the manner of an old friend revealing sacred, deep truths. The poetry collection is Griffin’s most personal work yet. It is wide-open in conveying multitudinous facets of his life. He doesn’t shy away from the heavy subject matters or horrific strife. The real magic though is this book’s powerful counterbalance of beauty, insight and enlightenment that fuels the evident art-filled triumphs over tragic occurrences.

Griffin brilliantly tells his poetic tales through summoning many ghosts and creative wizards either from his direct interactions or longtime influences. He heralds their legacies and communicates similar world views using his defiant, resounding voice. Griffin can be called an “insurgent artist” to the establishment, in the tradition of poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who wrote vivid verses in the defense of liberty and pursuit of egalitarianism. Griffin takes aim at present-day political figureheads in a style that would make Ferlinghetti proud with his no-holds-barred approach, particularly in his anti-fascist poem “Mein Trump.” Here’s an excerpt from that poem where he holds America accountable for recent errors in judgement:

you have become a blue movie of yourself
an embarrassing pornography of riches
a sexist horse opera of reckless enthusiasm
a capitalist slumlord caught in the malignant spin of an old realm splendor

There is genuine lament from this American poet, artist and actor about this nation and its state of affairs. I would add to Griffin’s description the title of “patriotic” poet because he doesn’t subscribe to the “love it or leave it” ideology but rather “the love it or change it” perspective, as per my impression of his poem about America, titled “Jesus Pizza Saves.” Here’s a taste of it:

America, waving behind your striped and starry mask
you cannot erase memory

I cannot recall the perfect body of your mind
or the perfect wisdom of your heart
and there’s something heartbreaking about a harmonica
doing blue somersaults in your ear

In addition to love of country, there are other forms of love shining through this volume, including his home of Los Angeles, California; his family; plus, extended family such as fellow poet/artists he was influenced by, many of them eulogized in Pandemic Soul Music: ruth weiss, Kell Robertson, Ferlinghetti, Danny Baker, Linda J. Albertano and several others. Griffin memorializes his Carma Bum brothers Scott Wannberg and the recently deceased Doug Knott. His sister Robin Lynne Griffin (who died in 2021) provided the Bukowski-like drawings that accompany S.A.’s poems as perfect, ekphrastic, visual intensifiers. There is death, grieving and love for absent friends.

In an Irish toast to love, here’s a glimpse of Griffin’s “St. Patrick’s Day 2020”:

There is love.

Get it while you can,
save it on an empty shelf
somewhere in your heart.
Remember where you put it in case of emergency,
don’t be afraid to break the glass.

Griffin also expresses an antithesis of love for oppressors and narcissists throughout his book.

In another one of Griffin’s striking poems, there’s amazingly graphic imagery that gives Griffin some “underground poet” street cred likened to the uncensored “underground cartoonist” Robert Crumb — both similarly creating works of radical counterculture bravado while maintaining an alluring notoriety to the mainstream world. Here’s an excerpt where Griffin lampoons prez number 45 in the poem “The Grand Old Party”:

he has an executive hand over her mouth
while his other fat fingers climb up her garments
desperately attempting to find their way past her
port of entry and into her sunset gates, "C’mon, Liberty baby —
lemme smack that sweet huddled ass of yours
yearning to breathe free. You know you want it!"

While one recurring theme of the book may be democracy under fire, there is a more key theme to Pandemic Soul Music, and a pivotal poem central to this — in title and premise — is “What Does Not Kill You” and here is a segment:

A few minutes later
an unexpected trembling rolls thru me
with a quickening jolt. Tears erupt.
Big tears, as childhood and old age
push up against one another
into a range of jagged memory.

What does not
kill you.

The red sun burns.

There is real-life drama in Pandemic Soul Music. This powerful essence is tapped by Griffin in a profound way as a working actor in Hollywood for over four decades. It is also ever present in his presentations as a long-standing, frequent host of hundreds of poetry shows, coast-to-coast traveling performance poetry troupes and as a creative warrior (or more fittingly General) of poetic action in Los Angeles for the majority of his life. Griffin’s poem “The Simple Practice of Acting” explains his theory on his devotion to art:

actors are flesh and blood messengers
of the bardic tradition
a face and a voice for art and commerce
words and action in the execution of the
narrative in process

I conclude this review with one of my favorite lines from Griffin’s poem “DADA Is Dead, Rejoice!”:

DADA without chaos is pity
the carnage of a purified humanity
rising like an astral flower of fertile spasms
magnified by pain out of mistrust for freedom

Pandemic Soul Music is published by Punk Hostage Press and available on their website and other online and brick-and-mortar bookshops.

For more info: https://punkhostagepress.com/pandemic...