Sinclair Beiles with Gil Scott-Heron

Sinclair Beiles with US poet and musician Gil Scott-Heron, Yeoville, Johannesburg, 1994.

Photo: Unisa library archives, manuscript collection number 143.

Sinclair Beiles: The Action Poet

A poem card published by Cold Turkey Press, France. The first side is a photograph of Beiles believed to have been taken in Johannesburg in the early 1980s. The reverse is Beiles's poem 'The Action Poet' from the collection the Idiot's Voice, soon to be published by Cold Turkey Press, in both French and English.

Nothing is True: Everything is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin by John Geiger

Nothing is True Everything is Permitted is a biography of Brion Gysin (1916-1986) - artist, novelist, poet and one of the collaborators with Sinclair Beiles on Minutes To Go.

As is usual with books dealing with the Beat Hotel and Minutes To Go, Beiles doesn't exactly take centre stage, but in this book he does get slightly more mentions. In addition to quoting Beiles, Geiger mentions that he was the author of several collections of poetry (usually only Houses of Joy - which was published in 1959 - and Minutes To Go are mentioned).

What is particularly noticeable is that his mental illness is not referred to, and overall there is a sense that Geiger treats Beiles with more respect than most Beat biographers.

Dispossessed by Sinclair Beiles

A poem poster courtesy of Cold Turkey Press, France