Journal Bids Goodby--Well, Sort of

Not long ago, the San Fernando Valley lost one of its most popular hangouts for poetry readings, BeBop Records. Now The Moment--a small but notable poetry journal out of Woodland Hills--is also calling it quits.

“We’re burned out,” said Kevin Bartnof, who along with Eric Lyden published the magazine every two months or so from Lyden’s hillside residence.

Los Angeles has perhaps a dozen poetry publications, and The Moment reached, at most, only 3,000 readers with each issue. Yet during its four-year life, this magazine received a surprising amount of attention, including a note of support from Lawrence Ferlinghetti and a mention on MTV. Charles Bukowski submitted poetry. So did Sean Penn.

More important to Bartnof and Lyden, The Moment included poets who ranged from the famous to beginners. The work ranged from avant-garde to amateurish.

“It had a wild and unorthodox feel . . . put together by instinct, whim, chance,” said Dave Dutton, whose four Dutton’s Books stores in Los Angeles usually sold out of the magazine within a week. “I, for one, will be very sorry to see The Moment pass.”

As a farewell to their dedicated coterie of readers, Bartnof and Lyden have put together an “all-star” issue that should hit the stands Monday. Bukowski did the artwork for the front and back covers. Allen Ginsberg sent a haiku. There will be an interview with Edie Parker Kerouac, Jack Kerouac’s first wife, and work from numerous local poets.

There also will be a disclaimer: though this is being touted as a goodby, the publishers warn that they may surprise readers with new issues from time to time.

“I know we’re not going to do one for a long time, but we might do one in another year,” Lyden said. “We’ll be like Batman. We’ll show up when we’re needed.”

Bartnof and Lyden, both in their early 30s, began publishing The Moment in 1986. The $3 magazine soon appeared on the racks at various bookstores in Los Angeles and at City Lights in San Francisco.

“Our goal is to bring poetry to a wider audience,” Lyden said in a 1988 interview. “To the guy who works at 7-Eleven or the accountant who writes occasional poetry.”

That philosophy proved fatal. The Moment became known for its open-mindedness. Lyden and Bartnof now receive as many as 500 submissions a month.

“People are sending us stuff from Europe and Japan,” Bartnof said. “And we get a lot of poetry from Massachusetts.”

Both men have day jobs--Lyden is a youth counselor and Bartnof is a sound-effects man for the movies--and their free time is obliterated by a continuous avalanche of mail.

“We want to read everyone’s poem and be good guys, but it’s impossible,” Bartnof said. “It’s gotten to be a major job.”

There are also the money concerns and paperwork that go along with publishing a magazine. “We’re not businessmen,” Lyden said. In fact, both men are poets who prefer to spend their nights writing or attending readings.

Ironically, the decision to stop publishing The Moment came soon after the magazine was awarded a $1,500 cultural grant from the city of Los Angeles. Lyden and Bartnof learned that to accept the money they had to become a nonprofit corporation. That meant more paperwork.

“Philosophically, we’re not sure we want to be, as artistes , supported by the government,” Lyden said. “We like to put pictures in our magazine of Jesse Helms spanking the Pope’s butt. We don’t want to have to censor ourselves to get grants.”

So the publishers have decided to dig their magazine even deeper underground, hinting at infrequent and unannounced future issues.

Bartnof and Lyden will continue their poetry hot line, 992-POEM, which offers recorded listings of Southern California readings and a short poetry selection. They will continue to publish small books of poetry, mostly by local poets, through their Shelf Life Press.

“We’re going to be around,” Lyden said, “in some fashion.”