Firesign, Poetry for the Free & Will Be
by Jon B. Eckels

“On a legalized day, Thanksgiving 1971, my friend Paola Barbieri introduced me to the poet Jon Eckels. Inspired by our meeting and subsequent talks, I read his works and was profoundly impressed by his range and soul communion with humanity.  I had read many poets of all stripes and hues who play cute games with words, humanity, and with themselves. The deeply human poetry of Jon Eckels I strikingly unique.

On April 4, 1972, I had my first art exhibition in America, at the International Center at Stanford University, when I invited Jon to join me. As he read his poetry, I witnessed the effects that it had on the audience—now laughing, grim, examining, discovering. I saw how Jon introduced the people to a variety of experiences, unlike many poets who ride to fame and money over familiar ruts and clever, high-blown words which nobody understands. Jon Eckels’ poetry cannot be categorized as ‘love poetry,’ ‘protest poetry’, ‘strictly personal poetry’, etc. It is poetry written by a human being for human beings.

His works about women express deep understanding of them. He does not deal in fleeting, sensual, stock pictures of fix women as objects of sex, where love is distorted and the female is a thing. He brings her closer to her soul. He deals with the weak, the strong, lesbians, prostitutes, good women and the rest, good men and the others—he has no place for mediocrity. Jon is immersed, not in tripping fanciful flights into spoon-fed imagination, but humanity, from the bottom to the top. While he lifts humanity, he challenges the exploiters, the oppressors, whether they are white, black or green—they are all unmasked and exposed. Although he always celebrates and understands the beauty of Black people, he is not a faddish, chauvinistic entertainer. He is as honest with Black people as he is with Whites and others…for Jon Eckels, eternity belongs to all human beings, black, white, and etc."—Tarun Bedi (from Dust Jacket)