Handwritten Manuscript Journal of B.L. Bari Kennedy [Poems] circa 1984

1984. Full-Leather. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Sacramento, 1984. Handwritten Manuscript Journal of B.L. Kennedy poems. Journal is a black leather-clad general-purpose notebook with "Scorpio" device and lettering in gilt on the cover, also metallic lavender imprinting, and is in about VG condition with bumped corners and spine ends and a hinge crack. Unpaginated, but contains 57 pages in ink, in Kennedy's somewhat floral hand. A collection of handwritten poems and notes by Sacramento counterculture poet and live arts events organizer B.L. "Bari" Kennedy, winner of a Sacramento Lifetime Achievement Award. Never one to shy from muckraking or pot-stirring of any sort, the energetic and charismatic Kennedy here penned thirty-three poems, all in January of 1984, including the handwritten form of the humorous and controversial "My Cock Goes To Hollywood", which outraged readers of the Sutterton News when it appeared there later in 1984. His rather neo-Kerouacian finesse at slightly philosophically softened counterculturalism, developed from his passion for live-performed cafe poetry and expressed in a conceit of humor-mellowed angst, is evident throughout these pieces, which include several dedicated poems, plenty of dry humor and a number of higher-than-PG-13 rated efforts as well. Accompanied by a copy of the April, 1984 Sacramento Magazine, in which he is the subject of a feature article, "Poetry's P.T.Barnum" (in recognition of his tireless and creative promotion of poetry). Magazine is in near fine condition. A nice companion piece to the separately-listed collection of first editions of D.R. Wagner poetry chapbooks, several of which are warmly inscribed to Kennedy, the two having been very close companions. LG13