Michael McClure

The day before I left for my first journey to Borneo in 1998, I got together with Michael and Larry Keenan and Larry's house in Oakland. (As students at CCAC, Larry and I photographed Michael, Alan Ginsberg, Bob Dylan and Robbie Robertson in the alley behind City Lights Bookstore in 1965.) At the end of the evening I asked Michael if he had any words of advice for my Borneo trip. "Don't miss the small stuff," he said.

Michael McClure was my first English teacher when I moved from quaker Midwest background to Oakland to study art at ccac in 1967 when I was 20. How he turned my beliefs and assumptions on end. Black cape or leather jacket, symbolist poetry, Baudelaire, parts of the howl, he opened me to a new world and sense of language forever. thank you!

May God comfort and bring the family peace in this time of sorrow.

My sincere condolences to the McClure family. May the God of all comfort provide you all the strength to cope with your loss

To the family and friends of Michael McClure I send my thoughts, prayers and condolences for the loss of your precious loved one. May God comfort your hearts at this tremendously difficult time.

I had the honor of getting to know him sometime back in the 90s when he read at D.G.Wills Books , when we had the great fortune of having a string of great Beat writers, at different times, grace us with a reading. Michael was an especially affable fellow in the days he spent with us; of calm demeanor but intense feeling, gracious, curious about those around him, willing to suffer what I thought in retrospect were naive questions. What he spoke of during our brief chats, and his remarks...

My condolences go out to the McClure family on the death of Michael.

Please accept my sincere condolences to the McClure Family, May the God of Tender Mercies comfort your grieving hearts with peace and loving kindness forever as you cope with the missing your precious Michael in your lives, Cherish his memories.

Over 40 years ago, I saw Michael McClure sitting in a coffee shop near City Lights Bookstore. I told him how much I admired his work. He invited me to sit and chat for a bit. He was gracious and kind. As a young girl, that brief conversation was so momentous. Ive recounted it so many times - my watershed memory of a chance meeting with a literary icon and how incredibly nice he was to me. Such a life well-lived, this wonderful poet. Sending my condolences to his dear family.