"German-born ruth weiss expands her poetry into performance, stories, film, and painting. She innovated poetry to jazz in San Francisco's North Beach, at The Cellar when it opened in 1956. This book is a selection of work from 1958-1998. In Czech and English. With numerous photographs. No American poet has remained so faithful to jazz in the construction of poetry as ruth weiss. Her poems are scores to be sounded with all her riffy ellipses and open-formed phrasing swarming the senses ... Others read to jazz or write from jazz. ruth weiss writes jazz in words."--Jack Hirschman, poet