Central Park Is His
Home
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Isidore Block, better known to himself as Poet-O,
lived on the streets for 20+ years after his release from a home for
the criminally insane, until he was rousted.from his Central Park bedroll
at 2 a.m. by some well-meaning nuns who didn't want him to be bitten
by the rats they saw crawling over him. "They don't bother me," he says,
"they know my smell." (The rats, that is.) |
Isidore Block, aka Poet-O, listens intently
to the fading sound of his brass unicorn bell.
"Make a wish, ring the bell, and you'll get back a hundred times
what you give." |
| Now he divides his time between his room at the Woodstock and
hustling in the streets, trading wishes for meals and recitations of his
own poetry for money. He still sleeps in the Park occasionally "to keep in
touch." |
| Izzy knows all the squirrels by name
and once shared a joint with John Lennon in the rain, the two of them
huddled under an umbrella. Celebrities, Poet-O explained, can come out only
when it rains. Lennon wouldn't ring O's bell for fear of reprisals from the
bell-ringers' union but Yoko in a bid for better karma gave it a mighty
jangle.
update:
Mr. Block passed away.
Poet-O's Official
Website by his friend Larry
Life Is A Dream:
A Documentary Film
Poet-O reads at Marymount College, April
1998
An interview
with McSweeney's
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If you or someone you know has
a pair of size 12 EE sneakers you no longer need, please mail them to Poet-O,
who has diabetes. |
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