Mindfield: New & Selected Poems [Paperback]

Gregory Corso (Author), William Burroughs (Foreword), Allen Ginsberg (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1989

Gregory Corso's an aphoristic poet, and a poet of ideas. What modern poets write with such terse clarity that their verses stick in the mind without effort? Certainly Yeats, Pound, Williams, Elliot, Kerouac, Creeley, Dylan & Corso have that quality. Corso's handling of ideas is unique, as in various one-word title poems...--Excerpted from the Foreward by Alan Ginsberg

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

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 / Then be it everybody's crime," he suggests in the previously unpublished "On Chessman's Crime," contending that no act of passion is purely or simply sordid, no matter what convention may decree.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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press; 1st edition (September 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0938410865
• ISBN-13: 978-0938410867
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,661,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gregory Corso was born on March 26, 1930 in New York City. His first book of poetry was published by City Lights Press in 1955.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An American original, March 26, 2000

By 

George Schaefer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mindfield: New and Selected Poems (Paperback)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts on Corso, October 12, 2005

By 

W. Davis (Richmond, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mindfield: New and Selected Poems (Paperback)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Wins You Over, April 27, 2005

By 

Kenneth M. Goodman (Cleveland, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mindfield: New and Selected Poems (Paperback)

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.