December 1st, 2008 / 11:30 am
Author News

Dave Church Died

On Thanksgiving, poet Dave Church passed away.

The reason I know Dave Church is that when I first started sending poems out to small magazines, about ten years ago, he was in every journal. We wrote letters back and forth and his letters were always on thin sheets of paper and written in this crazy longhand. Some were typed on a typewriter. Tough, compassionate, and funny, I always liked corresponding with Dave Church.

Prolific in publishing, Dave Church was also this kind of larger than life character that I always heard about through other writers.

From PoetryMagazine.org.uk: in an articled title “Dave Church: a well kept American Secret:”

“From the tomato plantations of Florida, where he spent time on a ‘chain gang’ for being drunk and disorderly, the eighteen year old youth had set out on a Beat odyssey that was to occupy much of his life from then on in. He has worked as a roofer, bouncer, street barker (for Big Al’s, a strip joint seen behind the opening credits on the old ‘Streets of San Francisco’ TV series), and even cut the lawn for a doctor who paid him in drugs.”

Dave Church was old school indie lit, publishing hundreds of poems in small venues and numerous chapbooks and broadsides.

Sorry to be so dark on a Monday morning, but I thought this was important.

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13 Comments

  1. jereme

      He sounds interesting. I’m going to look him up.

  2. jereme

      He sounds interesting. I’m going to look him up.

  3. Blake Butler

      that sucks. nice post.

  4. Blake Butler

      that sucks. nice post.

  5. aaron

      I really liked this post. Thanks, Shane.

      I mean… not that Church died, but I like reading about these cool characters, old school indie lit peeps.

  6. aaron

      I really liked this post. Thanks, Shane.

      I mean… not that Church died, but I like reading about these cool characters, old school indie lit peeps.

  7. George Held

      You might want to check out my tribute to Dave Church: Click here: NYQ Poets

      best,

      george held

  8. George Held

      You might want to check out my tribute to Dave Church: Click here: NYQ Poets

      best,

      george held

  9. Liti Suret-Canale

      Even though we saw each other rarely, I knew Dave for over 10 years through local poetry circles. He was a wonderful person who, in spite of his style of writing, was very gentle and loved kids. Dave was also a cab driver and by chance he was driving one day when I needed a cab. We were both poor, but he refused to let me pay, saying that if I tried to do so he would let the money fly out the window. Last night I took another cab and the driver was the person who found Dave. He told me that he had died in his cab.

  10. Liti Suret-Canale

      Even though we saw each other rarely, I knew Dave for over 10 years through local poetry circles. He was a wonderful person who, in spite of his style of writing, was very gentle and loved kids. Dave was also a cab driver and by chance he was driving one day when I needed a cab. We were both poor, but he refused to let me pay, saying that if I tried to do so he would let the money fly out the window. Last night I took another cab and the driver was the person who found Dave. He told me that he had died in his cab.

  11. Propaganda Press
  12. Propaganda Press
  13. Lsc54

      Three years gone. Still missed so very much. Love you my Brother David. We will meet again, your loving Sister Linda