Off The Shelf by Doug Holder

Confessions of a White Hat by Ed Galing (Alternating Current c/o Propaganda Press POBOX 398058 Cambridge, Mass. 02139) propaganda.x.press@gmail.com $2

I speak to 91 year old Hatboro, Pennsylvania poet Ed Galing on a regular basis, and I am amazed that despite his advanced years his mind is still sharp, and he continues to regale the small press with his prolific output of poetry and prose. Ed at this stage in the game is being discovered and is being published in such top shelf magazines such as: Pearl, Margie, Rattle and others.

I am also glad that a local press: Propaganda Press, headed by Somerville resident Leah Angstman, has published a new chap book from Ed. Ed has written extensively about his days as a boy on the streets of the Lower East Side of New York City, his stint as an occupation soldier during World War ll, and his life in America as a Jew, family man, and the many other roles he has played in the long expanse of his lifetime.

His latest book "Confessions of a White Hat" deals with his time as a naval reservist in the post World War ll Cold War era. In characteristic Galing style he gives the reader the taste and texture of the Navy-life, as he knew it. Here Galing describes the milieu, and the sensibility of his place and time:

The Beginning

we are a motley
crew
as motley as
you could ever wish
for; fresh out of
other branches
of the service,
after world war
two,
the reserves
wave a silver
platter before
our eyes;
ex-marines
soldiers
coast guard
waves
we all clamber
on board,
not willing to
forget the
military yet;
the cold war
is still on;
unrest in other
parts of the
world,
the russian bear,
i had to be nuts
but six months
after i get out
of the Army
i am now a
member of the
naval air
on active duty
at an air station
four miles from
home,
and the fat is in
the fire once
again.

Ed tells me that Leah Angstman is going to publish more of his work so that he can speak to us well after his death. Let’s hope that Ed stays around on this earthly plain for some years to come.