Simple Eyes and Other Poems (New Directions Paperbook) [Paperback]

Michael McClure (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0811212653 | ISBN-13: 978-0811212656 | Publication Date: May 1994 | Edition: First Edition

A direct poetic look at the world features one individual's disquieting and illuminating observations and includes in the title poem reflections on the Persian Gulf War, as well as wars of the spirit, mind, and environment. Original.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Perhaps best known for his recitation of the prologue to the Canterbury Tales in Martin Scorsese's film The Last Waltz , McClure has written more than 30 books--novels, plays, poetry, essays. Many of the poems in Simple Eyes were composed for spoken performances, in which the writer collaborates with the pianist Ray Manzarek of the Doors. The poems strive for an avant-garde freshness, but are rooted in the spiritual and visionary excesses of the '60s. In his introduction, McClure explains that his poetry "is not written in free verse but in a poetics that Charles Olson called projective verse. . . . I write with a breath line and I listen to the syllable as it appears in my voice or on the tip of my pen or on my screen or on my field of energies." In practice, this means the poems--which form a sort of spiritual diary--often have lines all in capital letters and words spelled vertically down the page, making them look, though not sound, like work by e.e. cummings. McClure draws his subjects from travel, from the work of other poets (e.g. Robert Creeley), and pop art. At the center of the volume is a long sequence of poems, "Fields," a "spiritual autobiography," in which each field, or poem, presents an event of consciousness. It begins: "THESE ARE MY FINE SWEET POEMS!! Immortal as butterfly wings / and the song that the eagle sings as he screams / diving!" And ends: "Everything is there /that touched and made me." For those who prefer the aural and gestural aspects of poetry to more traditional literary strategies, this book will certainly outlast a butterfly's wing or an eagle's song.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A
American Dream
At Noon By The Red-brown River
B
Boulder Hill
Brain Damage -- Lies!
The Butterfly
The Cheetah
Christmas Morning In Samburu
Cowboy
Cream Hidden
Edge Chunk (for Willie Dixon)
Field 1
Field 10
Field 11
Field 12
Field 13
Field 2
Field 3
Field 4
Field 5
Field 6
Field 7
Field 8
Field 9
The Foam
Gorgeousness
Grieved Skull
Haiku Of The Hunt
Haiku: For Harry
Haiku: For Monica
Hotel Santa Monica
The Last Waltz
Mexico Seen From The Moving Car
Mirroring Flame In The Fireplace
Moment's Muse
Near Mount Kenya
Old Eyes
Old Warhols
Quetzalcoatl Song
Reading Frank O'hara In A Mexican Rainstorm
Red Cages
Senate Hearings
Spirit's Desperado
Spontaneous Poem Beginning With Lines From The Tao Te Ching
Summer Hummingbird
Thoughts On Travel And Art
Through The Bars
To Robert Creeley (one)
To Robert Creeley (two)
Writing To You From Seattle
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Product Details

• Paperback: 134 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation; First Edition edition (May 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811212653
• ISBN-13: 978-0811212656
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,379,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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