Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems
This essential collection of Michael McClure's poetry contains the most original, radical, and visionary work of a major poet who has been garnering acclaim and generating controversy for more than fifty years. Ranging from A Fist Full, published in 1957, through Swirls in Asphalt, a new poem sequence, Of Indigo and Saffron is both an excellent introduction to this unique American voice and an impressive selection from McClure's landmark volumes for those already familiar with his boldly inventive work. One of the five poets who heralded the Beat movement in the 1955 Six Gallery reading in San Francisco, McClure reveals in his poetry a close kinship to Romanticism, Modernism, Surrealism, and Japanese haiku. These poems—grounded in imagination and a profound regard for the natural world—chart a poetic landscape of utter originality.
1100296475
Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems
This essential collection of Michael McClure's poetry contains the most original, radical, and visionary work of a major poet who has been garnering acclaim and generating controversy for more than fifty years. Ranging from A Fist Full, published in 1957, through Swirls in Asphalt, a new poem sequence, Of Indigo and Saffron is both an excellent introduction to this unique American voice and an impressive selection from McClure's landmark volumes for those already familiar with his boldly inventive work. One of the five poets who heralded the Beat movement in the 1955 Six Gallery reading in San Francisco, McClure reveals in his poetry a close kinship to Romanticism, Modernism, Surrealism, and Japanese haiku. These poems—grounded in imagination and a profound regard for the natural world—chart a poetic landscape of utter originality.
57.95 In Stock
Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems

Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems

Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems

Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems

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$57.95 
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Overview

This essential collection of Michael McClure's poetry contains the most original, radical, and visionary work of a major poet who has been garnering acclaim and generating controversy for more than fifty years. Ranging from A Fist Full, published in 1957, through Swirls in Asphalt, a new poem sequence, Of Indigo and Saffron is both an excellent introduction to this unique American voice and an impressive selection from McClure's landmark volumes for those already familiar with his boldly inventive work. One of the five poets who heralded the Beat movement in the 1955 Six Gallery reading in San Francisco, McClure reveals in his poetry a close kinship to Romanticism, Modernism, Surrealism, and Japanese haiku. These poems—grounded in imagination and a profound regard for the natural world—chart a poetic landscape of utter originality.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520262874
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 01/26/2011
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 344
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Michael McClure (1932-2020) was an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. He collaborated with prominent artists, poets, and musicians, including Allen Ginsberg, Jim Morrison, and Terry Riley. McClure's journalism was featured in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle, and he received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Obie Award. His books of poetry include Mysteriosos and Other Poems, Huge Dreams, and Rain Mirror.

Leslie Scalapino (1944–2010) taught at Mills College in Oakland and at Bard College in New York State. Among her many books are It's go in horizontal: Selected Poems, 1974–2006 (UC Press); Day Ocean State of Star's Night: Poems and Writings, 1989 and 1999–2006, and Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows.

Table of Contents

Preface xv

1 Introduction: The instant is the giant lamp we throw/our shadows Leslie Scakpino

From Hymns to St. Geryon, 1959

The Breech 27

Poem [Linked Part to Part] 28

Point Lobos: Animism 29

For the Death of 100 Whales 31

Poem [I Wanted To Turn To Electricity] 32

The Mystery of the Hunt 33

Peyote Poem 34

From A Fist Full, 1956-1957

The Air 47

Two Weeks Baby Sunbathing 48

For a Drawing by Jess 48

From Dark Brown, 1961

Oh Giddy Blank White Page 51

The Root the Ion the Pride to the Leaf 52

((Oh Bring Oh Blood Back the Courage 53

Oh Why Oh Why the Blasted Love 54

Oh Ease Oh Body-Strain Oh Love 55

Abaved Dearn A-Dearn Death-Fear 56

(((To your Huge Smooth Face and Hand 57

From the New Book/A Book Of Torture, 1961

Ode to Jackson Pollock 61

The Chamber 63

ode for Soft Voice 65

Yes Table 66

From for Artaud 66

La Plus Blanche 67

Rant Block 68

From Little Odes, 1961

Ode [The Love and Vision Of the Instant] 73

Ode [Oh Black and Cold I See In] 74

Hummingbird Ode 75

Ode [My Words are Plain] 76

Fantasy Ode 77

Ode [Wildnesses and High Act Lie in a Fabric] 78

From Ghost Tantras, 1964

1 Goooooor! 81

2 Pleasure Fears Me 81

13 ohlovelyline 82

39 Marilyn Monroe 82

49 Silence The Eyes! 83

51 I Love to Think 84

73 The Stars are a Shield 84

99 In Tranquility 85

From Star, 1970

Mad Sonnet 89

Love Lion 90

Cold Saturday Mad Sonnet 91

Mad Sonnet 2 92

Poisoned Wheat 93

From Hail Thee Who Play, 1974

Oh Muse 105

From September Blackberries, 1974

Written above the Sierras/in the Flyleaf of Regis Debray's/Revolution in the Revolution 109

Gray Fox at Solstice 110

Springs 111

From Jaguar Skies, 1975

Poetics 115

Stanzas From Rare Angel, 1975

Loveliness/Of Gold Flakes 119

So now It's Serious 120

Another Spot-Somewhere/Else 121

Love And Hunger Comprise Hatred 123

Durer, Raphael, And Shang Dynasty 124

from Fragments Of Perseus, 1983

Dream: The Night of December 23rd 129

Captives 132

From Rebel Lions, 1984

Dark Brown Eyes of Seals 135

Rose Rain 136

"To Glean the Livingness of Worlds" 137

Dark Contemplation 147

Freewheelin's Tattoo 148

From Simple Eyes & Other Poems, 1993

Spirit's Desperado 151

Mexico Seen from the Moving Car 152

The Butterfly 153

The Cheetah 154

Stanzas from Dolphin Skull, 1995

This Cloud is a Life 157

The Cloud that Raphael Found 158

Stickfigures Of Jack and Jill 159

I am a God With a Huge Face 160

Hold, Let this Moment 161

The Old Rabbit Begins to Wink 163

From Rain Mirror, 1999

From Haiku Edge

Oh Accident! 167

They, It's All Con/Sciousness 167

Pink Bandaid Stuck 168

Moldy/Board 168

Brass/And/Turquoise 169

oh//Hum/Ming/Bird 169

Hey/Driver 170

The Dry/Fir Needle 170

The Fox Turd/as a Cliff 171

The Heron 171

Orion 172

Before Dawn 172

Butterflies 172

From Crisis Blossom

Grafting one 173

Grafting two 174

Grafting five 175

Grafting nine 176

Grafting fourteen 177

Bud 178

Grafting eighteen 179

Grafting nineteen 180

Flower 181

From After the Solstice

"Give Way Or Be Smitten Into Nothingness" 182

From Plum Stones: Cartoons Of No Heaven, 2002

Plum Stone Two 187

Plum Stone Six 190

Plum Stone Fifteen 193

We Sit On Black Cushions 196

Plum 196

Unchanged 197

Swirls In Asphalt

1 A Forest Of Horses 201

2 No More Ferocity 202

3 I Polished The Stars 203

4 The Moment Is Our 204

5 How Badly 205

6 We Go Through This 206

7 The Moment Does Not 207

8 I Love Speaking 208

9 If We Go One Step 209

10 The Cat Lies Against 211

11 The "Contingent Flux" 213

12 "Blind Seeing" 214

13 In The Painted Chamber 215

14 Imagination Enables 216

15 Cascading Synapses 218

6 I Strike Outwards 219

17 Musk Crab Shell 221

18 O Lion Head, Uplift Me 223

19 From The Peak 225

20 The Forest Of Horses 227

21 Samhain 229

22 Swirl Of Asphalt 231

23 Right Here 232

24 Platforms Of Whiteness 234

25 Muscle Tissue Tendon 235

26 Zinging into Senses 236

27 I Save Myself 237

28 Lamb Salmon Prawn 238

29 Proud Of Testosterone 240

30 The Kernel Of Each 241

31 Breadth Of Being 243

32 The Sunset Moment 244

33 Children Are Casualties 245

34 We Swim in the Illumination 247

35 A Vulture Flies Over the Edge 249

36 Liquid Mercury in the Palm 251

37 A Birth Of A Photon 253

38 We Have Always Wanted to Do this 255

39 transiency Like the Shape Of Water 256

40 The Presence Of A Laugh 258

41 Freckles Of White Plum Blossoms 260

42 Let There Be Murders 262

43 The intention Of Creating 264

44 The Music is not so Bright 266

45 Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Meat 268

46 I Am the Full Grown Old Man Here 270

47 A Hunk Of Irrevocable Nothing 272

48 From the Non-Beginning Of the Wave 274

49 The Marching Band in the Forest 276

50 The Pursuit Of Consequence 278

51 Nothing Abolishes Chance 280

52 You Find the Unfinished 282

53 Sspontaneously Perfect Nothing 284

54 lives in the Morning Air 286

55 subtract Us From Ourselves 288

56 Dazed With the Fantasy 290

57 Black Souls are Cleared for Victory 292

58 Miracles Full Blown in Our Faces 294

59 What Good Money Owns Us? 296

60 Old Age in a Nazi Nation 298

61 I Report that 300

62 The Quest of Consciousness is Nada 302

63 No Reason to Hold Back the Party 304

64 Swiftly Moving Jagged Unrecognizable 306

65 No Thundering Footsteps Dissolve 308

Credits 311

Index of Titles and First Lines 313

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Like Philip Whalen, Charles Bukowski, and Jim Morrison (to whom one section is dedicated), McClure infuses ecstatic direct address and colloquial diction with an exquisite sensibility."—Publishers Weekly

"McClure's poetry seems as vital to the 21st century as it was to the 20th."—Library Journal

"A young reader can be inspired by McClure's radical questioning of the established social order at every turn. . . . McClure, among all the Beat poets, is perhaps the softest, most tender, most yielding."—San Francisco Chronicle

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