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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ancient Rain is Falling,
This review is from: The Ancient Rain: Poems, 1956-1978 (Paperback)
The Ancient Rain is one of my favorite poems of all-time. It is a relatively long poem, and I have read it at least seven times. I love the way that Bob Kaufman witnesses the ancient rain falling over the history of america and the future that is to come. The entire text, like all of Kaufman's work, is phenomenal. If you have never read Kaufman, you are seriously missing out. He lived the life of a true poet and his perspective on the world is truly unique. His visions are surrealist, ingenious, full of jazz and radical politics. I read a fair amount of poetry, and Bob Kaufman has become my favorite. He is an American Legend that in time will only grow."...It shall be brown rain that fell on the day Crispus Attucks died. It shall be the Ancient Rain that fell on July Fourth, 1776, when America became alive. In America, the Ancient Rain is beginning to fall again. The Ancient Rain falls from a distant secret sky. It shall fall here on America, which alone, remains alive, on this earth of death. The Ancient Rain is supreme and is aware of things that have never happened. The Ancient Rain shall be brilliant yellow as it was on the day Custer died. The Ancient Rain is the source of all things, the Ancient Rain knows all secrets, the Ancient Rain illuminates America. The Ancient Rain shall kill genocide..." It's a long poem, that's just a taste. I have always wanted to read this poem out loud wherever I am at on the 4th of July. Kaufman did not often write about America, but he was struck to the core when JFK died and is rumored to have taken a vow of silence that lasted for many years. The Ancient Rain may have been part of his lifting of the silence as he states in the poem that it "shall be blue rain like the rain that fell when John Fitzgerald Kennedy died," to close his opening stanza.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent book,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Ancient Rain: Poems, 1956-1978 (Paperback)
Bob Kaufman is a great poet. He is one of the beat poets, speaking in coffee houses and on the streets of San Francisco. He strived to be anonymous. Read this book. Once you have done that, read his words out loud, and with passion. Its great.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bob Kaufman is the real deal still on is line of flight,
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Ancient Rain: Poems, 1956-1978 (Paperback)
from San Francisco beat scene into utter poetic beatitude and broken forms of beauty and mongrel utterance. If there is anybody up ahead of Jack Spicer and Allen Ginsberg in the bay area poetics of experimentation and abomunation, it is Bob Kaufman. He comes out of Great Time of literature ahead of us, postmodern and material-real all at once. No wonder Spicer had to (symbolically) kill him off in Tower of Babel, he felt dimininished and threatened by his love and his poetics (but of course Spicer mocked himself as the minor academic poet John Ralston, safe and non-Blakean). Kaufman lives on in the "ancient rains" and imperial formations of queer and language-writing San Francisco, a long long time ahead.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Sitting here alone, in peace With my private sadness Bared of the acquirements Of the mind's eye Vision reversed, upended, Seeing only the holdings Inside the walls of me, Feeling the roots that bind me To this mere human tree Thrashing to free myself, Knowing the success Of these burstings Shall be measured By the fury Of the fall To eternal peace The end of All. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
crackling blueness Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Ancient Rain, Crispus Attucks, Black Man, New York, Nathan Hale Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Sitting here alone, in peace With my private sadness Bared of the acquirements Of the mind's eye Vision reversed, upended, Seeing only the holdings Inside the walls of me, Feeling the roots that bind me To this mere human tree Thrashing to free myself, Knowing the success Of these burstings Shall be measured By the fury Of the fall To eternal peace The end of All. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
crackling blueness Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Ancient Rain, Crispus Attucks, Black Man, New York, Nathan Hale Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
21
books
cite this book:
See all 21 books citing this book
- Reading Race in American Poetry: AN AREA OF ACT by Aldon Nielsen on 10 pages
- Whitman's Wild Children: Portraits of Thirteen Poets by Neeli Cherkovski on 6 pages
- Reconstructing the Beats by Jennie Skerl on 5 pages
- Reconstructing the Beats by Jennie Skerl on 5 pages
- NOTES TO MAKE THE SOUND COME RIGHT: FOUR INNOVATIONS OF JAZZ POETRY: Four Innovators of Jazz Poetry by T.J. ANDERSON III on page 72, page 77, and Back Matter
See all 21 books citing this book
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