Electric Review - Rat on Poetry

THE COMPLETE POEMS OF KENNETH REXROTH. Edited by Sam Hamill & Bradford Morrow. Copper Canyon Press.
This collection of Rexroth's poems marks the major release in poetry in 2003. Rexroth, along with Allen Ginsberg and William Carlos Williams, was a guiding force in poetry during the latter half of the 20st Century. His impact was considerable on the Beats, especially on Mike McClure, Gary Snyder and Phillip Whalen, and these collected works document the reasons why:

"As long as we are lost
In the world of purpose
We are not free. I sit
In my ten foot square hut.
The birds sing. The bees hum.
The leaves sway. The water
Murmurs over the rocks.
The canyon shuts me in...."

(from EMPTY MIRROR)

Rexroth was born in Indiana, and interacted with various labor and anarchist groups in Chicago during the 20s, before coming west. Even though his anarchist point of view was vital to his writings, Rexroth also penned stunningly beautiful romantic poetry, as well as contemplative studies on nature and the nature of Man. This present collection is further enhanced by the magnificent editing and sequencing that was done by Sam Hamill and Bradford Morrow, and their efforts here should serve a model for future "collected works."

More than anything, Collected Poems shows that without Rexroth leading the way the Beat Movement which took San Francisco and the nation by storm in the middle fifties would have had a much more difficult time garnering its energy. Hands down the book of the year -- and perhaps the decade-- in the world of poetry.

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GOOF BOOK. Philip Whalen. Big Bridge Press. Edited by Michael Rothenberg.
This manuscript, written in 1961, shows Kerouac's dictum of spontaneous prose moving forward at full throttle. The thin little book is energetic and fun, charting all the bends and twists of Whalen's mind on his infinite journey through time -- "A book, for Jack, saying whatever I want it to say," as Whalen stated in the opening line.

This collection is noteworthy because it rails against censorship of heart and spirit as it explores the bottom rungs of sweet imagination; wrote Whalen:

"Where would the world be without HIPPO, ELEPHANT, RHINO? Without some notion of huge gentle patience giant love lazily wandering rivers & woods wherever its pleasure leads, nothing to stand in its way..."

GOOF BOOK marks a major step on Whalen's journey as a poet and true seeker of God in the light. As much as it might seem like a throw away book of "goofs," it is not; instead every word is about the pursuit of the muse: Whalen now among us pursuing castles in the dusk as the last faint dust caps of Autumn splash the sky soft into golden. A must read for those interested in the origins of the Beat Generation and in Jack Kerouac's influence on his contemporaries. Also required reading for any and all students of poetry and for those interested in exploring the work of Phillip Whalen, who died in June of 2002.

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PLUM STONES (Cartoons of No Heaven). Michael McClure. O Books.
This collection by Michael McClure, released last year, is a major work by one of the seminal members of the Beat Generation . McClure is the most versatile of all the Beats -- an energetic risk taker who has published collections of poetry, novels, songs and award-winning plays since moving west to San Francisco in the 1950s. Recently, the influence Phillip Whalen, Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder and others have had on McClure through the years has surfaced in poems that explore the blackest smokiest depths of the subconscious:
"FOG. FOG AROUND RAINBOWS
RAINBOW IN CLEAR LIGHT
HORSE HEADS LIKE EAGLES.
EAGLES LIKE HORSE HEADS"

And from another poem:

"Our bodies are
partly inside the other's.
Just as your voice is now
in my ears."

In his preface to this book, McClure described its contents as "the energy of consciousness moving vertically on a scroll." PLUM STONES is the continuation of a journey which began with the 2000 release, TOUCHING THE EDGE. At once, these poems move us into uncharted waters: The poet alone moving through time and the timeless mind, stepping slowly now, aware of the craters just beyond the hissing tongues of water, aware of the snakes and goblins, the poet alone moving through himself into the sacred and holy place of no thought -- that soft and peaceful place where there is no thought and no preoccupation with the Self. No ego. No eyes. Only spirit. Ghostly peace. And simply content now to be.

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Visit Michael McClure's website, McClure-Manzarek.com.