Jennette Barnes Standard-Times staff writer Poet John Landry, an adjunct faculty member at UMass Dartmouth, will begin a series of monthly poetry readings at Gallery X in New Bedford Sunday. NAME: John Landry AGE: 53 TOWN: New Bedford OCCUPATION: Poet, clerk WHAT HE'S READING: "The Arcanes," by Jack Hirschman (Multimedia Edizioni, 2006, $64). 'The Arcanes' by Jack Hirschman just arrived in Monday's mail," reports John Landry, a New Bedford poet. He is an old friend of Mr. Hirschman, who was named poet laureate of San Francisco in January. In June, Mr. Hirschman published a collection of his poems from 1972 to the present. It stretches to nearly 1,000 pages. "These poems are of a vigil, a protest, a participation in collective historical events of our times," Mr. Landry said. Mr. Hirschman may not be a household name, but Mr. Landry said his communist politics have held back his notoriety in the United States. In 1966, he was fired from an assistant professorship in English at UCLA for his anti-war activities, which included giving students "A's" to help them avoid the draft. Mr. Landry said the subjects of the poems include the death of Mr. Hirschman's son at the age of 25 from leukemia, his partners in political struggle and erotic love. "It's a man's 40 years' work," he said. He described Mr. Hirschman's poems as "simultaneously life-affirming and agitprop against the tyrannies we witness and finance." "They are nature poems, humorous poems, love poems," he said. "These are a chain of islands of the imagination, word charts of the heart and mind." At Mr. Hirschman's installation as poet laureate, he reportedly said all his poetry is directed toward ending poverty and war, which he said will not end "until and unless the wealth of this world is redistributed and or appropriated for the benefit of all, according to our needs as human beings." Mr. Hirschman is an advocate for the homeless. "He's still politically active, like myself," Mr. Landry said, "not always loudly, but behind the scenes on issues dealing with the homeless." "The Arcanes," which was published in Italy, is available directly from the poet. Write to Jack Hirschman, P.O. Box 26517, San Francisco, CA 94126. Poet John Landry, an adjunct faculty member at UMass Dartmouth, will begin a series of monthly poetry readings at Gallery X in New Bedford Sunday