Product Description

Beginning in 1950 with Charles Olsen, Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology is the first anthology since Donald Allen’s groundbreaking collection to fully represent the movements of American avant-garde poetry. Postmodern American Poetry provides a deep and wide selection-411 poems by 103 poets-of the major poets and movements of the late twentieth century. Included are the leading Beat and New York School poets, the Projectivists, and "Deep Image" poets. Included, too, is the rich array of poetry written since 1975-language and performance poetry, the work of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, gay and lesbian, and women experimentalists.

In addition, a final section of poetics-with writings by Frank O’Hara, Denise Levertov, Jerome Rothenberg, Amiri Baraka, and Charles Bernstein, among others-provides valuable contexts for reading the poems. .

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87329 in Books
• Published on: 1994-05-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 744 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780393310900
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From Publishers Weekly
Concentration and magnification make the best anthologies work, and this may be one of them. Concentration: the focus on a body of writing with a heritage, an era, or a style in common that tests shared visions and constraints. Magnification: an expanse that seems to widen and deepen as we are allowed to take a look at it, and then another look. For anyone carping at the idea of the postmodern or the avant-garde as wanly intellectual, fiercely separatist, beside the point, or even nonexistent, Hoover's large-scale collection of recent experimental American poetry (and a concluding selection of essays about it) should persuade that it's not. He brings together more than 100 writers from the 1950s and since--Olson, Duncan, O'Hara, Ginsberg, Corso, Dorn, Major, Ashbery, Guest--whose adventures with the language renew it for far more than a readymade membership. The fact that some of the poets are sine qua nons and others aren't simply leaves the whole tribe more interesting. There's almost no point in listing names, except to indicate breadth; the same could be said for the "schools" represented. For literary positions have a way easing from their own strictures and outgrowing acolytic expectation when the words themselves are richly transformed and reformed--as they are here. Hoover is the editor of New American Writing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Long regarded as the major purveyor of conservative, canonical literary anthologies for classroom use, the publisher here loosens up with a hefty gathering of 103 avant-gardists from the Beat, New York, Black Mountain, language, performance, and other experimental schools flourishing off-campus since World War II. It's an exceptionally rich vein but one well mined of late in American Poetry Since 1950 ( LJ 5/1/93), Out of this World ( LJ 10/1/91 ), and other works. Editor Hoover broadly defines postmodernism as "an ongoing process of resistance to mainstream ideology" whose poetry "opposes . . . centrist values," yet, ironically, what separates this anthology from the others is its recasting of a half century's lively artistic spontaneity into a set of "oppositional strategies" aimed at supporting the jargon-plated theories of today's mainstream academic discourse. Half the 400-plus poems included were published only since 1980, and--bulk notwithstanding--there are surprising omissions (Oppen, Bronk, Dahlen, Oppenheimer). Thus, while this is a welcome survey of exciting territory, the Norton imprimatur should not imply that it is definitive.
- Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Nudo De Claridad by Miguel Algarin
San Francisco by Miguel Algarin
Tato -- Reading At The Nuyorican Poets' Cafe by Miguel Algarin
Bomb Then, Bomb Now by Bruce Andrews
Species Means Guilt by Bruce Andrews
Stalin's Genius by Bruce Andrews
A Private Occasion In A Public Place by David Antin
Attention by Mary Rae Armantrout
Language Of Love by Mary Rae Armantrout
Necromance by Mary Rae Armantrout
Farm Implements And Rutabagas In A Landscape by John Ashbery
Flow Chart: 1 by John Ashbery
How Much Longer Will I Be Able To Inhabit The Divine Sepulcher by John Ashbery
Leaving The Atocha Station by John Ashbery
The One Thing That Can Save America by John Ashbery
The Other Tradition by John Ashbery
Paradoxes And Oxymorons by John Ashbery
The Picture Of Little J.a. In A Prospect Of Flowers by John Ashbery
The Skaters: 1 by John Ashbery
Matanza To Welcome Spring by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Mi Tio Baca El Poeta De Socorro by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Voz De La Gente by Jimmy Santiago Baca
Am/trak by Amiri Baraka
Ka 'ba by Amiri Baraka
Kenyatta Listening To Mozart by Amiri Baraka
Leadbelly Gives An Autograph by Amiri Baraka
Leroy by Amiri Baraka
The Nation Is Like Ourselves, Together by Amiri Baraka
The New World by Amiri Baraka
Political Poem by Amiri Baraka
Three Modes Of History And Culture by Amiri Baraka
Melting Milk by Bill Berkson
Rebecca Cutlet by Bill Berkson
Russian New Year by Bill Berkson
The Klupzy Girl by Charles Bernstein
Of Time And The Line by Charles Bernstein
Wait by Charles Bernstein
Whose Language by Charles Bernstein
Bean Spasms by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Sonnet: 2 by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Sonnet: 36 by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Sonnet: 88. A Final Sonnet by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Words For Love by Edmund Joseph Berrigan
Alakanak Break-up by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Jealousy by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Texas by Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Brooklyn Narcissus by Paul Blackburn
El Camino Verde by Paul Blackburn
The Net Of Place by Paul Blackburn
Park Poem by Paul Blackburn
Crucifix In A Deathhand by Charles Bukowski
I Am Dead But I Know The Dead Are Not Like This by Charles Bukowski
The Mockingbird by Charles Bukowski
My Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Prairie Houses by Charles Bukowski
Startled Into Life Like Fire by Charles Bukowski
25 Mesostics Re And Not Re Mark Tobey by John Cage
Writing Through The Cantos by John Cage
Maybe I'm Amazed by Jim Carroll
Paregoric Babies by Jim Carroll
Withdrawal Letter by Jim Carroll
Geological Hymn by Joseph Ceravolo
Ho Ho Ho Caribou by Joseph Ceravolo
New Realism by Joseph Ceravolo
Pregnant, I Come by Joseph Ceravolo
Amble by Maxine Chernoff
Black by Maxine Chernoff
Breasts by Maxine Chernoff
How Lies Grow by Maxine Chernoff
Lost And Found by Maxine Chernoff
The Man Struck Twenty Times By Lightning by Maxine Chernoff
Baseball And Classicism by Thomas Willard Clark
Like Musical Instruments by Thomas Willard Clark
Society by Thomas Willard Clark
Suicide With Squirtgun by Thomas Willard Clark
You (1) by Thomas Willard Clark
You (iii) by Thomas Willard Clark
Against Meaning by Andrei Codrescu
Circle Jerk by Andrei Codrescu
Paper On Humor by Andrei Codrescu
Telyric by Andrei Codrescu
Work by Andrei Codrescu
African Sleeping Sickness by Wanda Coleman
Brute Strength by Wanda Coleman
Essay On Language by Wanda Coleman
The Ism by Wanda Coleman
At Egypt: I by Clark Coolidge
Brill by Clark Coolidge
The Crack by Clark Coolidge
The Hand Further by Clark Coolidge
Noon Point by Clark Coolidge
On Induction Of The Hand by Clark Coolidge
Being Aware by Dennis Cooper
Drugs by Dennis Cooper
No God by Dennis Cooper
Cold Lunch by William Corbett
Vermont Apollinaire by William Corbett
Wickson Plums by William Corbett
Dream Of A Baseball Star by Gregory Corso
I Held A Shelley Manuscript by Gregory Corso
Love Poem For Three For Kaye & Me by Gregory Corso
The Mad Yak by Gregory Corso
Marriage by Gregory Corso
For The Poets by Jayne Cortez
I See Chano Pozo by Jayne Cortez
Rape by Jayne Cortez
After Lorca by Robert Creeley
Age by Robert Creeley
Bresson's Movies by Robert Creeley
The Flower by Robert Creeley
For Love by Robert Creeley
A Form Of Women by Robert Creeley
I Keep To Myself Such Measures by Robert Creeley
The Language by Robert Creeley
The Rain by Robert Creeley
Self Portrait by Robert Creeley
The Window by Robert Creeley
The World by Robert Creeley
Areyto by Victor Hernandez Cruz
An Essay On William Carlos Williams by Victor Hernandez Cruz
Problems With Hurricanes by Victor Hernandez Cruz
Et In Leucadia Ego by Michael Davidson
Thinking The Alps by Michael Davidson
Backyard by Diane Di Prima
For H.d. by Diane Di Prima
The Loba Addresses The Goddess / Or The Poet As Priestess... by Diane Di Prima
On Sitting Down To Write, I Decide Instead To Go... by Diane Di Prima
The Practice Of Magical Evocation by Diane Di Prima
Each Moment Is Surrounded by Ray Dipalma
Memory's Wedge by Ray Dipalma
A Pink Maniac by Ray Dipalma
Rebus Tact by Ray Dipalma
Rumour's Rooster by Ray Dipalma
From Gloucester Out by Edward Dorn
The Rick Of Green Wood by Edward Dorn
Close by Robert Duncan
Often I Am Permitted To Return To A Meadow by Robert Duncan
A Poem Beginning With A Line By Pindar by Robert Duncan
Poetry, A Natural Thing by Robert Duncan
Songs Of An Other by Robert Duncan
Ape (2) by Russell Edson
Conjugal by Russell Edson
The Optical Prodigal by Russell Edson
A Performance At Hog Theater by Russell Edson
The Toy-maker by Russell Edson
Open Air Where by Larry Eigner
Wholes by Larry Eigner
[a Temporary Language] by Larry Eigner
[how It Comes About] by Larry Eigner
[trees Green - The Quiet Sun] by Larry Eigner
Amazon Club by Kenward Elmslie
Big Bar by Kenward Elmslie
Feathered Dancers by Kenward Elmslie
Geranium by Kenward Elmslie
An Idle Visitation by Kenward Elmslie
Japanese City by Kenward Elmslie
A Bouquet Of Objects by Elaine Equi
A Date With Robbe-grillet by Elaine Equi
In A Monotonous Dream by Elaine Equi
Puritans by Elaine Equi
The Lich Gate by Clayton Eshleman
Notes On A Visit To Le Tue D'audoubert by Clayton Eshleman
Horse On A Fence by George Evans
A Renaissance Drunk by George Evans
Revelation In The Mother Lode by George Evans
A Coney Island Of The Mind: 1 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
A Coney Island Of The Mind: 15 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
I Am Waiting by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
In Golden Gate Park That Day by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Monet's Lilies Shuddering by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Re:searches (fragments, After Anakreon, For Emily Dickinson) by Kathleen Fraser
Bitter Angel by Amy Gerstler
Bzzzzzzzz by Amy Gerstler
Marriage by Amy Gerstler
The True Bride by Amy Gerstler
America by Allen Ginsberg
First Party At Ken Kesey's With Hell's Angels by Allen Ginsberg
Kaddish by Allen Ginsberg
A Supermarket In California by Allen Ginsberg
To Aunt Rose by Allen Ginsberg
Life Is A Killer by John Giorno
Scum & Slime by John Giorno
Our Lady by John Godfrey
So Let's Look At It Another Way by John Godfrey
Where The Weather Suits My Clothes by John Godfrey
Wings by John Godfrey
Crow by Robert Grenier
Has Faded In Part But Magnificent Also Late by Robert Grenier
Sunday Morning by Robert Grenier
Wrath To Sadness by Robert Grenier
An Emphasis Falls On Reality by Barbara Guest
Red Lilies by Barbara Guest
River Road Studio by Barbara Guest
Twilight Polka Dots by Barbara Guest
Wild Gardens Overlooked By Night Lights by Barbara Guest
Latin Music In New York by Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn
Something About You by Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn
The Male by Carla Harryman
My Story by Carla Harryman
Realism by Carla Harryman
As For We Who Love To Be Astonished by Lyn Hejinian
Like Plump Birds Along The Shore by Lyn Hejinian
A Pause, A Rose, Something On Paper by Lyn Hejinian
Yet We Insist That Life Is Full Of Happy Chance by Lyn Hejinian
The Dream Of Instant Total Representation by Anselm Hollo
Godlike by Anselm Hollo
Italics by Anselm Hollo
Journey, 1966 by Anselm Hollo
Shed The Fear by Anselm Hollo
Wild West Workshop Poem by Anselm Hollo
Desire by Paul Hoover
Heart's Ease by Paul Hoover
Poems We Can Understand by Paul Hoover
Speeches At The Barriers: 1 by Susan Howe
Speeches At The Barriers: 3 by Susan Howe
Speeches At The Barriers: 4 by Susan Howe
White Foolscap; A Book Of Cordelia by Susan Howe
Bittersweet Growing Up The Red Wall by Robert Kelly
Coming by Robert Kelly
The Rainmakers by Robert Kelly
A Woman With Flaxen Hair In Norfolk Heard by Robert Kelly
Mexico City Blues (113th Chorus) by John Kerouac
Mexico City Blues (127th Chorus) by John Kerouac
Mexico City Blues (149th Chorus) by John Kerouac
Mexico City Blues (211th Chorus) by John Kerouac
Mexico City Blues (228th Chorus) by John Kerouac
The Thrashing Doves by John Kerouac
An Autumnal Sketch by August Kleinzahler
A Case In Point by August Kleinzahler
Ebenezer Californicus by August Kleinzahler
Hamburger by August Kleinzahler
The Lunatic Of Lindley Meadow by August Kleinzahler
Poetics by August Kleinzahler
Spleen by August Kleinzahler
Alive For An Instant by Kenneth Koch
The Circus (ii) by Kenneth Koch
Permanently by Kenneth Koch
Variations On A Theme By William Carlos Williams by Kenneth Koch
With Janice by Kenneth Koch
Perugia by Art Lange
Sonnet For The Season by Art Lange
The Inn At Kirchstetten by James Laughlin
Then And Now by James Laughlin
Boy Sleeping by Ann Lauterbach
Clamor by Ann Lauterbach
Here And There by Ann Lauterbach
Mimetic by Ann Lauterbach
Platonic Subject by Ann Lauterbach
The Difference Between Pepsi And Coke by David Lehman
Toward The Vanishing Point by David Lehman
The Ache Of Marriage by Denise Levertov
Illustrious Ancestors by Denise Levertov
Overland To The Isalnds by Denise Levertov
Stepping Westward by Denise Levertov
Wavering by Denise Levertov
Where Is The Angel For Me To Wrestle? by Denise Levertov
Williams: An Essay by Denise Levertov
The Wings by Denise Levertov
Ghede Poem by Nathaniel Mackey
The Shower Of Secret Things by Nathaniel Mackey
12th Dance -- Getting Leather By Language -- 21 Feb 1964 by Jackson Maclow
1st Dance -- Making Things New -- 6 February 1964 by Jackson Maclow
59th Light Poem: For La Monte Young And Marian Zazeela- by Jackson Maclow
6th Dance -- Doing Things With Pencils -- 17-18 Feb 1964 by Jackson Maclow
Antic Quatrains by Jackson Maclow
Trope Market by Jackson Maclow
Twenties 26 by Jackson Maclow
Twenties 27 by Jackson Maclow
Inside Diameter by Clarence Major
Isolate by Clarence Major
Swallow The Lake by Clarence Major
Jews In Hell by Tom Mandel
Realism by Tom Mandel
Say 'ja' by Tom Mandel
Histoire by Harry Mathews
The Sad Birds by Harry Mathews
Birthday Sonnet For Grace by Bernadette Mayer
First Turn To Me by Bernadette Mayer
Gay Full Story by Bernadette Mayer
Sonnet by Bernadette Mayer
Sonnet by Bernadette Mayer
Hymn To Saint Geryon by Michael Thomas Mcclure
Ode To Jackson Pollock by Michael Thomas Mcclure
Curve Of The Water by Hilda Morley
For Elaine De Kooning by Hilda Morley
The Lizard by Hilda Morley
Made Out Of Links by Hilda Morley
Parents by Hilda Morley
December 9th by Eileen Myles
New England Wind by Eileen Myles
The Sadness Of Leaving by Eileen Myles
Elizabethan & Nova Scotian Music by Charles Laurence North
A Few Facts About Me by Charles Laurence North
A Note To Tony Towle (after Ws) by Charles Laurence North
Beginning Again by Alice Notley
A California Girlhood by Alice Notley
How Spring Comes by Alice Notley
Jack Would Speak Through The Imperfect Medium Of Alice by Alice Notley
Poem by Alice Notley
Ave Maria by Frank O'hara
The Day Lady Died by Frank O'hara
Meditations In An Emergency by Frank O'hara
Ode To Joy by Frank O'hara
Personal Poem by Frank O'hara
Poem by Frank O'hara
Poem by Frank O'hara
Steps by Frank O'hara
Why I Am Not A Painter by Frank O'hara
I, Maximus Of Gloucester, To You by Charles Olson
In Cold Hell, In Thicket by Charles Olson
Letter 3 by Charles Olson
The Librarian by Charles Olson
Maximus, To Himself by Charles Olson
All That Glitters by Maureen Owen
For Emily (dickinson) by Maureen Owen
Big Bluejay Composition by Ron Padgett
Falling In Love In Spain Or Mexico by Ron Padgett
Nothing In That Drawer by Ron Padgett
Who And Each by Ron Padgett
Wonderful Things by Ron Padgett
Fifth Prose by Michael Palmer
Notes For Echo Lake 3 by Michael Palmer
Notes For Echo Lake 5 by Michael Palmer
The Project Of Linear Inquiry by Michael Palmer
Voice And Address by Michael Palmer
Chronic Meanings by Bob Perelman
Cliff Notes by Bob Perelman
Let's Say by Bob Perelman
Things by Bob Perelman
Codex by Stephen Rodefer
My Mind To Me Mangles Iron. An Error Is Mirror To The Truth by Stephen Rodefer
Plane Debris by Stephen Rodefer
Pretext by Stephen Rodefer
Cokboy: Part One by Jerome Rothenberg
Cokboy: Part Two by Jerome Rothenberg
The Cutting Prow by Edward Sanders
Flush by Leslie Scalapino
The Series -- 3 by Leslie Scalapino
The Crystal Lithium by James Schuyler
Korean Mums by James Schuyler
Letter To A Friend: Who Is Nancy Daum? by James Schuyler
A Man In Blue by James Schuyler
A Book Of Glass by David Shapiro
Commentary Text Commentary Text Commentary Text by David Shapiro
The Counter-example by David Shapiro
A Realistic Bar And Grill by David Shapiro
Nnot This %what Then? %i Started Over & Over. Not This by Ron Silliman
A Sentence In The Evening. Today The Boxscores Are Green by Ron Silliman
As For Poets by Gary Snyder
Avocado by Gary Snyder
Axe Handles by Gary Snyder
The Bath by Gary Snyder
Right In The Trail by Gary Snyder
Riprap by Gary Snyder
Eleven Rock Poems by Gustaf Sobin
Out Of The Identical by Gustaf Sobin
What The Music Wants by Gustaf Sobin
Imaginary Elegies by Jack Spicer
Morphemics by Jack Spicer
Phonemics by Jack Spicer
Instructions For Your New Osiris by Lorenzo Thomas
The Marvelous Land Of Indefinitions by Lorenzo Thomas
North by Tony Towle
Painting The Eaves by Tony Towle
Random (re-arrangeable) Study For Views by Tony Towle
Double Truble by David Trinidad
Movin' With Nancy by David Trinidad
Index by Paul Randolph Violi
Rifacimento by Paul Randolph Violi
When To Slap A Woman by Paul Randolph Violi
Blue Monday by Diane Wakoski
Hummingbird Light by Diane Wakoski
Berthe Morisot by Anne Waldman
Makeup On Empty Space by Anne Waldman
Skin Meat Bones by Anne Waldman
A Shipwreck In Haven: I by Keith Waldrop
Wandering Curves by Keith Waldrop
Will To Will by Keith Waldrop
Androgynous Instinct ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
Because We Cannot Penetrate ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
The Body Is Useful ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
Heavy With Soot ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
I Learned About Communication..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
I Tried To Understand ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
I Wondered If It Was Enough..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
Is It Possible To Know ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
It Is Best To Stop ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
On The Fourth Day ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
There Were No Chronicles ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
To Explore The Nature ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
Visibility Was Poor ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
Way Down The Deserted ..., Fr. Inserting The Mirror by Rosmarie Waldrop
Glass House by Diane Ward
Immediate Content Recognition by Diane Ward
Lovely Stuff by Diane Ward
Radio by Barrett Watten
Relax %stand At Attention, And by Barrett Watten
Statistics by Barrett Watten
Clairvoyant Journal: 3/10 by Hannah Weiner
Clairvoyant Journal: 3/10 P 4 by Hannah Weiner
Clairvoyant Journal: 3/15 by Hannah Weiner
Clairvoyant Journal: Fri May 17 by Hannah Weiner
Crossing Disappearing Behind Them by Marjorie Welish
Respected, Feared, And Somehow Loved by Marjorie Welish
Skin by Marjorie Welish
Veil by Marjorie Welish
Within This Book, Called Marguerite by Marjorie Welish
The Slop Barrel by Philip Whalen
The Loneliness by John Wieners
My Mother by John Wieners
A Poem For The Insane by John Wieners
A Poem For Trapped Things by John Wieners
Two Years Later by John Wieners
The Waning Of The Harvest Moon by John Wieners
Best Minds Destroyed by William Carlos Williams
Cenotaph by John Yau
Chinese Villanelle by John Yau
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Customer Reviews

one of the must-have anthologies
For anyone interested in postmodern poetry or for those who want to learn what postmodern poetry is, this is the anthology to have. It's loaded with some of the best poets: the gifted Robert Duncan, Ferlinghettis (one of the best of the beat poets), Bukowski (my first intro to him, and not a dissapointment), Levertov, Kenneth Koch (not his best poems, but still a good selection), the wonderful poetry of Frank O'Hara, Ginsberg, Robert Creely (and excellent selection), a selection from Ashbery so huge that i almost forgot i wasn't reading one of his books, the awesome Gary Snyder, Rothernberg's "Cokboy", Dave Trinidad, Paul Hoover, Wanda Coleman, Charles Olson, Kerouac, Philip Whalen, Corso, Amiri Baraka, Diane di Prima, Anne Waldman, and many others, including a very strong Chicago appearance towards the end.

The anthology starts with an essay by Hoover, which helps to clear up many questions about what postmodern poetry is and what many of the schools are. He concludes the anthology with a selection of essays on poetry.

Note - this review is for the Classroom Guide only
For some reason, the reviews for the anthology itself are posted here, instead of reviews of just the Classroom Guide. Maybe this review will also end up with the reviews of the anthology, but it doesn't belong there.

As many observe, the anthology itself is great. However, I don't think much of the Classroom Guide, and I was disappointed by its content. I'm not an instructor, and I didn't buy this book to help me teach the subject. I had hoped it would provide additional insight into the separate poems and poets, and actually provide some "inside" information or ideas that would help me go deeper into the poems, but it really is just a bunch of questions that an instructor could have students answer, think about, or write about, related to each poet's work that appears in the anthology. Call me a dummy, but I want to read a question, think about it, and then see an informed answer or discussion of it.

But questions do not a guide make. Unless the guide itself is the author's contribution to the canon of postmodern poetry. Then I would have to reconsider. Or would I?

Existentialist/postmodern intellectual's heaven
Wow! If you're well read, this book is for you. It makes me wish I actually were alive when these people wrote. It is somewhat culturally biased, but I could easily excuse it as just being specific. There is a lot of name droppings in these artful poems, so if you're not used to it, beware! A lot of the poems are spaced out (physically) thoughtfully. This is a book for the thinkers and aspiring poets. Most of these poems were written in the 1950s, as the editors say. Gregory Corso is a highlight, as well as Ginsberg and some of the female writers. This book is long and well worth the price (or a visit to your local library). I am a struggling working class college student, but I'd easily pay $100 for this underrated gem. These are highly personal in nature, but people who like to imagine things would love this book. These inspiring personal reflections are artfully defiant, it will for sure paint a picture in your mind.

Happy reading!

Your all-American community college Vale-D.