Pomes All Sizes (Paperback)

by Jack Kerouac (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
" 'Develop a pure / lucid mind' " instructs Kerouac in "Gatha," a poem in this miscellany of what Ginsberg ( Howl ) calls "notebook jottings and little magazine items" spanning 1954-1965. The poem's lines and title, referring to Zoroastrianism, signal the influence of Eastern philosophies on Kerouac's ( On the Road ) work. Stylistically, this influence displays itself in his uses of the verb "to be." Lines like "Enlightenment is: do what / you want / eat what there is" have a calm, decisive tone and play a defining role, as if uttered after long, disciplined meditation. Another aspect of Kerouac's style directly clashes with this emphasis on clarity, however. He free-associates into a kind of linguistic clutter: "ole Hotsatots dont footsie / down here bring my gruel, I'll / be cruel." Underlying this volume's hodgepodge, then, is the drama of Kerouac the mystic, with his urge toward control, at odds with Kerouac the freewheeling Beat and, on a personal level, Kerouac the alcoholic. Yet as Ginsberg observes in his introduction, division--the sense of life as "both real and dream"--is the pervasive "spiritual intelligence" of the Beats. Given that, this is a perhaps ironically representative volume.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This book, which Kerouac prepared for publication before his death in 1969, collects poems written between 1954 and 1965. Most are playful--comments about friends, variations on the sounds of words. Yet a few extremely sensitive longer pieces appear, including "Caritas," in which the poet runs after a barefoot beggar boy to give him money for shoes and then begins to doubt the boy's veracity. Other intriguing poems reflect the poet's religious concerns of the moment, running the gamut of Eastern and Western religions. Allen Ginsberg's introduction is a disappointment; he rehashes views on Kerouac's Mexico City Blues , laments that his old friend's poems are not anthologized, but barely discusses the poems collected here (many of which contain confusing allusions that could have used some clarification). In general, this book will be appreciated mainly for the light it sheds on Beat literature and on Kerouac's other works. In the next two years, three more of Kerouac's unpublished manuscripts, long held up by the estate, will be published.--Ed.
- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872862690
• ISBN-13: 978-0872862692
• Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 4.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #926,320 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How can something be good yet bad at the same time?, November 12, 1998

By	Midwest([e-mail]) (Fremont, NE) - See all my reviews

That is the central question to this collection of poems. All of them seem to be intoned with a sense of intentionally attacking the sacred tradition of being serious about poetry. And yet, some end up with beautiful moments and insights. And even if not that, there is still the vibration of enjoying life in an almost chaotic fusion of urge and meditation. Poems range from containing only one line ("I am God"), to pages of what seems to alternately be wandering drivel and intentional questioning of something that Jack seems to see but the reader quite doesn't. Overall, this is a MUST READ for those who like Kerouac. Specifically, at least two poems seem to be inherent to the creation of at least two books (On the Road and Dharma Bums). The Gary Snyder Haikus are downright hilarious in my mind, and capture perfectly that Zen Beatist sense of overindulged mentality in an underindulged world.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Difficult reading. Proceed with caution., February 18, 2003

By	Philip Yanov "Phil" (Greenville, SC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A must read for the serious Kerouac fan, Pomes is a "Why bother?" for everyone else. Ann Charters wrote "The quality most pure in Kerouac was his grasp that life is really a dream." Nowhere is this more evident than in the random jottings that has been published as Pomes All Sizes. There are some gems among his silly little haikus, and I truly enjoyed the first sequence of "Poems of the Buddhas of Old." Most of the collection left me scratching my head. Was Jack just having a bit of fun with us, or was he so advanced that I still can not grasp the meaning? "Life is like a dream. / You only believe it's real / Cause you're born a sucker / For that kind of deal;" In Pomes All Sizes the roses are beautiful, but the path to them is unpassable to all but the most devout.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest book of pomery of all time, March 2, 2003

By	taogoat (the mothership) - See all my reviews

You will not understand Kerouac's writing style by reading "On the Road" or "Dharma Bums." To really dig what he was getting at you have to read his "Belief & Technique in Modern Prose" then read some stuff like "pomes all sizes," "old angel midnight," "visions of cody," "mexico city blues" etc. "Pomes all sizes" is an incredible book, full of astonishing pomes by one of the most important literary innovators of the 20th century, & along with "some of the dharma" it's kerouac's most personal book (but far, far, far more readable than "some of the dharma," which I would only recommend you read after reading everything else kerouac has ever written). Yes, there's lots of silly fragments and intoxicated sketches (where else do you find a kerouac pome written while on morphine or goofballs), but you gotta see Kerouac's style values spontaneity over crafted work, so it is these unpretentious, unselfconscious pomes that are among his greatest accomplishments.

This slim volume is jam-packed with mind blowing pomes: "Mexican Loneliness," "How to Meditate," "The Moon," "Skid Row Wine," "Long Island Chinese Poem Rain," "Silly Goofball Pomes," "God," "Bowery Blues," and dozens of haikus... Yes, the book is inconsistent at times, but after all it is selections from his private notebooks -- and what a rare treat to be invited to spy into a great writer's "secret scribbled notebooks and wild typewritten pages."

If you do not dig this book then you do not dig Kerouac. Nuff said.