tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post3771223207528463454..comments2024-03-19T21:14:01.007-07:00Comments on The Compass Rose: Jack Gilbert - It's Later Than You Think [Part I]Curtis Favillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-74120917634912853772010-05-06T14:53:08.670-07:002010-05-06T14:53:08.670-07:00Steve Vincent is a good source.
edward MycueSteve Vincent is a good source.<br />edward MycueEdward Mycuehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10479549766369466232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-39159067062849368462010-05-04T04:45:31.084-07:002010-05-04T04:45:31.084-07:00(Jack's) truth lay in the interactions between...(Jack's) truth lay in the interactions between ALL the levels... to drop the personal mythology ain't so easy but a necessary to get to the impersonal mythology (?)<br /><br />Maybe it is that in this "post Frawdian" Period 'we' (Americans) yet cannot read either poetry or symbolism (?)<br /><br />... or carry a tuneEd Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-60796963396974682432010-05-03T19:21:36.966-07:002010-05-03T19:21:36.966-07:00Very interesting take on Jack, who I first met in ...Very interesting take on Jack, who I first met in San Francisco in 1963 or so. A charismatic figure, and very ambitious one. When all is known of Jack, like any of us, a mixed one - in which the projected myth and the reality of the life are conflicted. But, I would say he worked very hard on the myth part. <br /><br />Parenthetically, the Yale award permitted Jack to get work as 'poet in residence' in Universities of which he was fond of doing. And he liked to actually take classes at SF State. On the other hand he would have had an impossible time as tenured faculty anywhere. He had a very high opinion of himself and his standards and the domineering 'heroism' of the stance was coin for trouble. His short tenure as poetry editor at Genesis West was diplomatic catastrophe for everyone. <br />It is not possible to discuss his marriages, without mentioning Laura Ulewicz and to whom his Yale book is dedicated as a kind of dragon. (For the sake of 'full disclosure', I am processing her archive and putting together a Selected Poems). Laura - a Polish American daughter of Detroit auto workers - introduced Jack to North Beach. She also became - for a short period - an important poet and figure in both England and the Bay Area. In 1965 Penguin wanted to publish her poems in an anthology with Sylvia Plath and Denise Levertov - however Penquin decided not to because thy did not believe there was market enough for an all women's volume! <br />The correspondence with Jack - that went on for 30 years - reveals a relationship that tested him to the marrow. Unable to sustain herself as a poet (a midcentury Bohemian without trust fund or a benefactor) Laura exiled herself to Locke where she wrote little. And passed away in 2007).<br />On one hand I still find appeal in Jack's poems. I don't learn from them anymore. in the way I can learn continuously from Williams and Zukofsky and others. And, when all is said and done, Jack's poetry should be held up against what it does not do, does not permit within its borders. And that will come out with the more that we know of his life. But boy, his myths of exile much aside, what he carved out with an incredibly stubborn persistence totally aligned with career and ambition!<br /><br />Enough!<br /><br />Stephen Vincent <br /> http://stephenvincent.net/blog/Stephen Vincent(optional)http://stephenvincent.net/blog/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-415082918930464552010-04-07T17:31:12.729-07:002010-04-07T17:31:12.729-07:00Interesting work here. Sad and sober, if a trifle...Interesting work here. Sad and sober, if a trifle...confessional--yet thank Osiris mostly absent of the usual beatnik theatrics, howls and general psychosis. The de rigeur northbeach turtleneck tho'--not so copacetic. <br /><br />Yet...the poetic commodity (and Lit-biz as a whole, if not...Kultur) ruins far more than it rewards. <br /><br />I doubt Mr Gilbert's image will be helping to sell Gap jeans...Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11567400697675996283noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-86745636105336800382010-04-07T07:19:03.122-07:002010-04-07T07:19:03.122-07:00in that blue factsimile edition of HOWL edited b...in that blue factsimile edition of HOWL edited by Barry Mills<br /><br />(is not 'factsimile' a neat compound word?!)<br /><br />in the bibliography (of HOWL) by Bill Morgan:<br /><br />'Howl for Cark Solomon, San Francisco: Ditto mimeograph, May 16, 1956 (25-50 copies).<br /><br /><br />Howl and Other Poems. San Francisco: City Lights Books, November 1, 1956. Reprinted 33 times (in 1956?); unexpurgated edition beginning with the 8th printing.<br /><br />THEN in 1973 The Pocket Poets Series Vol 1, Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus Reprint Co.<br /><br /><br />in 1971 Grabhorn-Hoyem did an edition of 275 copies.<br /><br />and etcs.<br /><br />as far as mythe is our reality?<br /><br />I do believe that we-all<br />run the risk of becoming what we pretend to be.<br /><br /> yet to this day I have not read the entire HOWL poem.. just glanced/grazed through it. not my "cup of tea"<br /><br />I prefer his KADDISHEd Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-63059697374333848722010-04-06T21:57:53.163-07:002010-04-06T21:57:53.163-07:00Yes, you are correct, there was a mimeoed Howl; it...Yes, you are correct, there was a mimeoed <i>Howl</i>; it came after the Six Gallery reading but before the City Lights Pocket Poets edition. I've seen enough of the mimeos for sale over the years such that it would not surprise me if the original mimeo masters were run off subsequently. <br /><br />But probably that doesn't matter just as -- as you put (and I think I agree) it doesn't really matter when the first reading of <i>Howl</i> took place. Myth is stronger than fact.Steven Famahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733977161680651117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-76799586093882322872010-04-06T20:26:55.708-07:002010-04-06T20:26:55.708-07:00"iographically, I think the suggestion that G..."iographically, I think the suggestion that Gilbert went away after his first book (published in 1962) over-states it."<br /><br />This is probably correct. Did he teach briefly at SF State? Isn't that when he first met Linda Gregg, or was that later. He went through a period of "returns" to the U.S. to save enough cash to get back to the Greek Islands--I think that's how it went. <br /><br />Gilbert is currently living in a care facility in Berkeley--he has Alzheimer's Disease. I visited him there a few months ago, and he hardly knows what's happening--very sad. My "*" footnote in part two of my post will make reference to that. <br /><br />There was a first "first" edition of Howl--a stapled mimeo version, which is many times scarcer than the City Lights edition which it preceded. This was circulated about among the poets. He supposedly composed it while sitting in the Cafe Mediteraneum. A likely story. <br /><br />I'm not sure it matters any more. A great flawed poem, it is.Curtis Favillehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06213075853354387634noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-81836860530515054982010-04-06T09:50:56.287-07:002010-04-06T09:50:56.287-07:00Thank you for emphasizing the need for everyone to...Thank you for emphasizing the need for everyone to decide for themselves.<br /><br />Biographically, I think the suggestion that Gilbert went away after his first book (published in 1962) over-states it. I don't know the details, but Ron Silliman has written or talked about being taught by Gilbert at SF State, and that must have been late in the 1960s.<br /><br />According to Wikipedia, Gilbert currently lives in Berkeley.<br /><br />Also, Gilbert may be the only one who can shed light on the suggestion -- made by art curator Susan Landauer based on a printed program I saw once (but unfortunately did not buy) -- that (and what a bombshell this would be!) Allen Ginsberg first reading of "Howl" was NOT at the Six Gallery but weeks before at a reading at the Norse Auditorium in SF, at which Gilbert also read!Steven Famahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13733977161680651117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1660090614793277371.post-74727465044983654502010-04-06T07:41:32.931-07:002010-04-06T07:41:32.931-07:00that poem/piece NOT EASILY is terrific...
"...that poem/piece NOT EASILY is terrific...<br /><br />"The dance is known by the dancing." (period)<br /><br />Jack always is a "pay-attention" (to the details) poet..<br /><br />that sweater, I do beleive, gotten in Lindos, about 1969... I, too, also bought one....<br /><br />try his The Great Fires AND his Refusing Heaven<br /><br /><br />after Greece and a brief stint<br />in SF (teaching,) he went to Japan... connected with Cid Corman and ... well,<br /><br />Jack's a fine poet (...)<br /><br />this new book/collection<br /><br />The Dance Most of All is new to me thanks will look for and to it.Ed Bakerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.com