Product Description

Republished with a new cover and a new introduction by David Amram, this publication includes forewords by two legendary Beat writers, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #566619 in Books
• Published on: 1998-12-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Once a Beat bad boy, Corso has grown up, revealed to good and ill effect in this collection of new and familiar work. At his best when driven by a blast of heretical energy, the insurgent is able to persuade us of the wisdom in bedlam. "Be abnormal sex a crime? / Then be it everybody's crime," he suggests in the previously unpublished "On Chessman's Crime," contending that no act of passion is purely or simply sordid, no matter what convention may decree. In a classic like "Marriage," the poet performs a manic, hilarious balancing act in considering the right and wrong of propriety ("the girl next door") versus creative anarchy (the mischievous garble of "Radio belly! Cat shovel!"). Especially in some poems from his middle period, Corso's sense of play wanes, and he whines wordily, lectures and declaims. Still, few are as sincere--or as much fun--in making a virtue of perversity.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This first major volume by Corso in eight years includes selections from six previous collections, ranging from The Vestal Lady on Brattle (1955) to Herald of the Autochthonic Spirit (1981), plus 23 previously uncollected poems spanning his entire career (including five dated 1989). Corso's three most memorable poems--"Marriage," "Bomb," and "Elegiac Feelings American"--are included, along with others that will remind readers of Corso's lyric grace and ability to view life with enthusiasm and humor bordering on self-mockery, no matter what the cost. Even the topicality of many poems, which would date the work of lesser poets, is given continual freshness by Corso's startling imagery. Line drawings by the author, embodying the same innocence as the poems, are a perfect complement. Essential.
- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
12 Ash St. Place
1959
3
30th Year Dream
Active Night
Ah... Well
Alchemy
America Politica Historia, In Spontaneity
The American Way: 1
The American Way: 2
The American Way: 3
Amnesia In Memphis
Apples
Army
Berlin Zoo: 1
Berlin Zoo: 2
Birthplace Revisited
Bomb
Botticelli's 'spring'
But I Do Not Need Kindness
Cambridge, First Impressions
Clown: 1
Clown: 10
Clown: 2
Clown: 3
Clown: 4
Clown: 5
Clown: 6
Clown: 7
Clown: 8
Clown: 9
Columbia U Poesy Reading-1975: Poem
Columbia U Poesy Reading-1975: Prologue
Commission Unfulfilled
Danger
Dear Girl
Dear Villon
Destiny
A Difference Of Zoos
Direction Sign In London Zoo
Doll Poem
Don't Shoot The Warthog
The Doubt Of Lie
The Doubt Of Truth
Dream Of A Baseball Star
A Dreamed Realization
Earliest Memory
Elegiac Feelings American: 1
Elegiac Feelings American: 2
Elegiac Feelings American: 3
Elegiac Feelings American: 4
Emily Dickinson-the Trouble With You Is
European Thoughts 1959
Feelings On Getting Older
Field Report
Fire Report-no Alarm
For
For Homer
For Lisa, 2
For Miles
For Miranda
Friend
From Another Room
Galactic Birth
Getting To The Poem
Giant Turtle
God Is A Masturbater
Greenwich Village Suicide
A Guide For My Infant Son
Hair
Halloween
Happening On A German Train
Hello
Hi
The Horse Was Milked
How Happy I Used To Be
How Not To Die
I Am 25
I Gave Away
I Held A Shelley Manuscript
I Met This Guy Who Died
In Praise Of Neanderthal Man
In The Fleeting Hand Of Time
In The Morgue
Inner & Outer Rhyme
Italian Extravaganza
The Last Gangster
Last Night I Drove A Car
The Leaky Lifeboat Boys
Lines Written Nov. 22, 23 - 1963 In Discord
The Love Of Two Seasons
Love Poem For Three For Kaye & Me
The Mad Yak
Man
Many Have Fallen
Marriage
Mexican Impressions
Mortal Infliction
Nevermore Baltimore
Noted For Having Hard Heads (testa Dura)
Notes After Blacking Out
Ode To Old England & Its Language
Of One Month's Reading Of English Newspapers
On Chessman's Crime
On Pont Neuf
On The Walls Of A Dull Furnished Room
One Day
Paranoia In Crete
A Pastoral Fetish
Poet Talking To Himself In The Mirror
Poets Hitchhiking On The Highway
Power
Proximity
Puma In Chapultepec Zoo
A Race Of Sound
Reflection
Rembrandt - Self Portrait
Requiem For 'bird' Parker, Musician
The Sacre-coeur Cafe
The Saving Quality
Sea Chanty
Seaspin
Second Night In N.y.c. After 3 Years
Seed Journey
She Doesn't Know He Thinks He's God
Some Greek Writings
Song
Spirit
Spontaneous Requiem For The American Indian
St. Lukes, Service For Thomas
St. Tropez, Early Morning
Stars
Sun
Sunrise
Sunset
They
This Was My Meal
Three: 1
Three: 2
Three: 3
Transformation & Escape: 1
Transformation & Escape: 2
Uccello
Under Peyote
Vermeer
What The Child Sees
When A Boy
When We All
The Whole Mess Almost
Window
Wisdom
The Wreck Of The Nordling
Writ On The Eve Of My 32nd Birthday
Writ On The Steps Of Puerto Rican Harlem
Writ When I Found Out His Was An Unmarked Grave
Youthful Religious Experiences
Zizi's Lament
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Customer Reviews

An American original
Mindfield is an expansive retrospective of poems by one Gregorio Anuzio Corso. This guy is one of the original Beats. He was part of the original seven of Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, Huncke, Holmes, Cassidy and Corso. Corso wrote an excellent collection called Gasoline which is generously represented in this book. This volume also includes poems from Corsos books for New Directions. Poems like Bomb and Marriage are Beat classics. Long Live Man should be retitled Long Live Corso! Corso never attained the level of noteriety of Ginsberg, Kerouac or Burroughs but there is work in this collection that will really make you wonder why. Shorter poems like Italian Extravaganza and I Am 25 really hit the spot. (amazingly Corso can still pull off I Am 25 at readings even as he reaches the age of 70) This is American poetry by an American original. It would be great to see Corso garner the recognizion that he has so long deserved.

Thoughts on Corso
If you like Ginsberg, you'll undoubtedly love Corso. If there is to be any collection that represents his art, this is it. I found out about Corso through a Professor at the old College I used to attend while I was writing some of my own work, and practicing with the art of poetry. For any writers and readers of poetry, if you want something out there, stretching the boundaries of form, if you want beat poetry at its heart, this is the book for you.

It Wins You Over
I was all prepared not to like this book...
but by the time I was 3/4 through...it won
me over. It's really very good...no wonder
Corso inspired his famous friends.