{image1} Lunch with James Liddy begins with a glass of champagne. And then another. We'll have finished the entire bottle before our food arrives. We sit in a small French cafe called Jacques'. Until recently Jacques' had been, more or less, Liddy's South Side secret filled more so with French cooking smells than customers. For him, this is where creativity exists, or hides out. The Milwaukee poet feels at home here. The front door to Jacques' swings open and a couple shuffles in, brushing snow from their hair. Liddy scoffs at their addition to the already crowded room. His secret has obviously gotten out.
He hands me a copy of his recently published autobiography, "The Doctor's House," and we talk our way through another glass of champagne; our own Sunday afternoon symposium. I skim through the pages as he reminisces about the abundance of bookstores -- where now scores of Starbucks and martini bars exist -- that flourished 30 years ago when he arrived in this city.
Times are different now. But what hasn't changed, he says, is the potential to find good writers in Milwaukee. "I don't consider myself a performance poet, but the café scene here is impressive. You can find open mic poetry any night of the week. Poetry is taken very seriously."
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Liddy moved to San Fransisco at the age of 33 and immersed himself into the booming literary scene of the late 1960s. He got a job teaching English at San Francisco State. "There was a sense of energy about it," he says. "We were a part of the very first generation of creative writing programs."
Friendships and exploration led him to Wisconsin in 1975, and he has been here ever since, teaching creative writing and Irish and "beat" literature at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Among his published books of poetry are "Blue Mountain," "A Munster Song of Love and War," "A White Thought in a White Shade: New and Selected Poems," "Gold Set Dancing," and "I Only Know that I Love Strength in My Friends and Greatness."
Finding a true home in Milwaukee, his more recent work evokes the sometimes beautiful and sometimes gritty feel of living, loving, working and writing in this city. Reading his words, it's apparent the magic he possesses. Only Liddy can make an "Evening at Axel's" a satisfying literary experience.
"The Doctor's House" is a journey that transforms him from a curious boy in Dublin to an even more curious man, on the wild search for a muse in a myriad of American cities. Stylistically, it is reminiscent of the Beat literature he teaches.
"I wanted to tell the story of what happened to me. I didn't so much talk about myself, but rather the writers I met, the artistic experiences we shared and the poetry scene itself," he says.
Written in what he describes as "a musical residential poetic style," his autobiography reads with the kind of excited desire for intellectualism that initially drove him to leave Ireland. "I don't like to tell stories too long," he says. "The Irish have a habit of doing that, but I'm trying to cut that back."
The book finishes with a poem on Milwaukee's East Side, his home. For those of you whose desperate urges to leave this city act as a constant but careful balance with the need to stay in its familiar and mostly comfortable arms, this is a great read. In his own way, Liddy reaffirms why Milwaukee is a wonderful place to end up.
"(It's) full of interesting things, but you can always find a quiet place to be productive," says Liddy. For him, that place had been Jacques', which is now almost at capacity. He scans the crowd. "Perhaps it's time to find a new place."
He has found the voice of the city, but he speaks it with a traveled tongue, often referencing places and writers I've admittedly never heard of. But that in no way takes away from his account. Actually, it adds to its richness as you find yourself "Googling" the names of his friends. But it's not like work; it's more like free education. Pick up his book, and maybe a tall glass of Guinness, and let him tell his story. Cheers to you, Mr. Liddy. Here's to learning something.
You can find "The Doctor's House" at Woodland Pattern bookstore or order it online at salmonpoetry.com.
OnMilwaukee.com staff writer Julie Lawrence grew up in Wauwatosa and has lived her whole life in the Milwaukee area.
As any “word nerd” can attest, you never know when inspiration will strike, so from a very early age Julie has rarely been seen sans pen and little notebook. At the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee it seemed only natural that she major in journalism. When OnMilwaukee.com offered her an avenue to combine her writing and the city she knows and loves in late 2004, she knew it was meant to be. Around the office, she answers to a plethora of nicknames, including “Lar,” (short for “Larry,” which is short for “Lawrence”) as well as the mysteriously-sourced “Bill Murray.”
