Harvey Silver Essay

Born November 6, 1929, Harvey Silver was always a unique man. As a child he attended many different schools in New York such as James Monroe HS and Theodore Roosevelt HS. Soon after graduating, Harvey served in the US Army Medical Corps from 1947-1948. After serving, he traveled to Israel and worked on a kibbutz in the Ngev for a year. Silver published his first poem in the 1950s and started living the way he would the rest of his life-Through poetry and art. In 1958, his poem entitled, “Steps” was put in an issue of Yugen Magazine. This was the first time he changed his print name to “Jack Micheline, Jack for his favorite author Jack London, and Micheline for adding an ‘e’ to his mother’s maiden name. Jack finally became a beat poet. In

He gladly accepted, then immediately began preparing. “Which one should I read?” he probably thought. Micheline needed a short, quality poem with a bit of humor(because he was on a comedy show). He decided on one of his favorites that many people seemed to think was funny, “Hot Chicken Soup.” It was about a man named Bernie who loved kosher food, blintzes, kasha varnishkes, strawberries and cream and hot chicken soup. When Jack accepted to go on the show, he knew he needed something more than just reciting a poem. He called up his friend, Bob Feldman, a saxophone player, to perform alongside Jack on “Late Night.” Those two men were friends since 1976, when Jack approached Bob and his friends if they wanted to buy any

He recovered in time.

“Bernie liked varnitchkes, kreplach, fruit salad pumpernickel, sour rye, blintzes and cream strawberries and hot chicken soup” As Jack got into the poem, more and more people started laughing.

“When Bernie sat down to eat it was one of the great acts of his life. His eyes lit up like a pinball machine as he chewed, swallowed and slurped his food down his bagpipe” The audience was roaring with either fake or real laughter, I can’t tell.

“Bernie walked five miles for a good hot bowl of soup

He was a prince a hawk, a wild bird

No one enjoyed a meal better than Bernie.”

Bob played his final riff, and the poem was over. After introducing Bob to the audience, Jack walked over to Conan for the interview.

“Jack,” Conan said,“Listening to that poem made me hungry. What did the poem actually mean?” he asked.

“Well, let me tell you a funny story on how I met Bob.” Jack completely ignored Conan’s question. He was like that, he never did what he was asked to do or told to do. As I said, Jack Micheline was a unique