It's Not Nostalgia

This book is Lally's rough cut, the rawest scenes intact. Its narrative trajectory is an up-and-down ride, with change the only constant. As political activism in Washington D.C. (1969-1975) gives way to rebel bohemianism in New York City (1975-1982) and then to screen-star aspirations in Santa Monica (1982-1998), the tone of Lally's private movie turns from exuberant and defiant to rueful and reflective.

A youthful Michael Lally burst on the downtown New York art scene like a supernova, flaming out in frank poems of sexual experimentation -- a self-styled "big mouth, a voice of the sixties" -- as he puts it in the 1974 shocker "My Life." While still haunted by dreams of fame, later poems in It's Not Nostalgia also confront harsh truths about aging and the fading of glamour:

We are the generation of lost

angels. We rarely feel these

days like we have anything new

to do or say & yet our lives

are totally changed, even from

what they were a year ago, three

months ago, yesterday, trying

to finally be honest about our

feelings about each other's fame

& glory, while still trying to

get or forget our own...