Mindfield: New and Selected Poems

FROM THE PUBLISHER

New rare sketches and notes from the author's personal journal, forewords from two of the world's leading poets of the Beat Generation and an introduction by David Amram, the man who collaborated with Jack Kerouac in the first-ever-live poetry reading in 1957, are collected here for the first time, in this revised and unique edition of Mindfield. This poetry is an affront to all that limits, restrains or frightens. "Death I unsalute you," Gregory declares. Beyond energy and sheer brilliance, these poems offer the wisdom of a man unstuck, and a mind content with the freedom of knowing truth without being afraid of it.

FROM THE CRITICS

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 / Then be it everybody's crime,'' he suggests in the previously unpublished ``On Chessman's Crime,'' contending that no act of passion is purely or simply sordid, no matter what convention may decree.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. (Dec.)

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

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