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I met Harry Kresky in the late eighties; he was my lawyer, or I should say he was the lawyer for the community. Without going into too much detail, or I’ll be writing a book, Harry defended a Lower East Side community park called La Plaza Cultural in city, state, and federal courts from 1987 until 1991. La Plaza was slated for development and some of us in the neighborhood wanted to stop it. This was before the garden movement became popular; in 1987 if you chose a park over housing you were considered by many to be a pariah, but Harry defended La Plaza, and finally we did win. La Plaza is still here and the housing exists and is only a block away where we asked them to put it in the first place.
I didn’t realize at the time that Harry and I would become life long friends, and this would partly have to do with poetry, which Harry, at a later time in life, began to write. When he was a young boy, his mother read poetry to him, including her favorite, Lord Byron. So there was a foundation for poems from the start. I think Harry is a brilliant lawyer, and his work as a social activist over the years with all of the altruism that that involves has enabled and helped Harry to write his poems.
He is fighting cancer now and sometimes writes about that, if he isn’t writing about going fishing, or being in love with his wife, or looking back over the history and politics of his life. I enjoy reading Harry’s poems. They are succinct and unpretentious and like a lawyer does, they get to the point.
You can find Harry’s work on his website. Here is one poem that Harry recently posted on Facebook.
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What’s Next?
Took a walk
down the road;
waiting for
something to write.
What makes the words come?
Is it an idea?
Is it a feeling?
Is it something
I need to share?
With whom?
What for?
Is it a block
I need to break through?
What’s on the other side?
September 7, 2023
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Harry’s book, A Poet’s Journey, came out a few months ago although I’m only getting to it now. In the Vimeo below, Harry Kresky reads some of the poems. Enjoy.
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A Poet’s Journey is distributed via BookBaby. You can check it out here:
https://store.bookbaby.com/book/a-poets-journey
You can read more about Harry and read more of his poems here.
https://poemsforfriends.blog/
