Joel Oppenheimer was a student of Charles Olson at the original Black Mountain College, a fixture in New York’s West Village, and a lover of the NY Mets. His work embraces the taunt line of W. C .Williams. Lessons returns the work of this essential American poet to print. “No one else speaks with his benevolence and humor and still touches me at the depths of my own fear and love. I think his poems are a Godsend to us all.” —Hayden Carruth “Oppenheimer was an immense and buoyant influence on the poesy of my contemporaries and me.” —Andrei Codrescu Joel Oppenheimer (1930 - 1988) published more than a dozen books of poetry.