“I need all those hungry friends. / I wanna get warm, / available.” (Ann Nelson Gleeson)

The English Department at City College of San Francisco holds 35 past issues of Forum, the earliest issue dated 1948. Upon request, these issues are available but cannot leave the office.

During the 1970s, Forum was renamed with individualized titles: Reality Trip (1973), Double Mirage (1975), & other lovely insects (1976), and Undertow (1977, 1978). In Double Mirage (1975) visual art was creatively incorporated with decoratively drawn frames, hand-drawn typeface, and full-page sketches accompanying text. Student editors have fiddled with Forum‘s style for decades, building a legacy of unique perspectives.

Forum can better preserve past issues with digital archiving. Traditional archives localize physical content, whereas digital archives have no bounds. Ensuring that voices of past authors are heard would continue Forum‘s mission to give voice to the talented authors, poets and visual artists in our community.

Greedy

by Ann Nelson Gleeson

I need a black leather jacket.
I wanna look cheap,
available.
I need the Ozone Hotel.
I wanna act,
available.
I need the Rolling Stones and drugs.
I wanna get lost
and available.
I need all those hungry friends.
I wanna get warm,
available.
I wanna be there when
the rain turns to gold,
I wanna be under the
shower of good tears,
I wanna be available cheap.

Available for the storm,
riding the highest crest of the sea.
Available to rub my hair
across Neptune’s belly and ride the dolphin
to the rocks.

I wanna be available cheap
until
filament sizzles, bulb bursts
and glass shatters leaving splinters
in a thousand faces.

I want all that.

“Greedy,” by Ann Nelson Gleeson originally published in Double Mirage (1975, City College of San Francisco).