As Ever : Selected Poems

by Kyger, Joanne (Author); Meltzer, David (Introduction by)

• ISBN13: 9780142001127
• ISBN10: 0142001120
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-08-01
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)

Summary

This collection of Joanne Kyger's work reveals her as one of the major experimenters, hybridizers, and visionaries of poetry. Kyger is a poet of place, with a strong voice-delicate, graceful, and never wasteful; her poems explore themes of friendship, love, community, and morality and draw on Native American myth as well as Asian religion and philosophy. Kyger's love for poetry manifests itself in a grander scheme of consciousness-expansion and lesson, but always in the realm of the everyday. Edited with a foreword by Michael Rothenberg, and with an introduction by poet David Meltzer, this book is a marvelous overview of a wonderfully challenging and important poet.

Author Biography

Joanne Kyger comes out of a West Coast School of writers that included Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen, Jack Spicer, and Richard Brautigan. She has traveled extensively in Japan and India and has maintained a lifelong interest in Buddhism. She is the author of more than twenty-five books and broadsides.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xv
Michael Rothenberg
Introduction	xvii
David Meltzer
The Maze	1	(4)
Tapestry	5	(2)
The Dance	7	(1)
Tapestry	8	(1)
``Somewhere you can find reference''	9	(1)
12.29 & 30 (Pan as the son of Penelope)	10	(2)
``A Song in the rope''	12	(1)
``waiting again''	13	(1)
``They are constructing a craft''	14	(1)
``It is lonely''	15	(1)
Caption for a miniature	16	(1)
My Sister Evelyne	17	(2)
Tapestry	19	(1)
Burning the Baby to make him realer	20	(1)
Iliad: Achilles does not die	21	(1)
``fragmented. ie several valleys''	22	(2)
``Look the bird is making plans''	24	(1)
The Hunt in the Wood: Paolo Uccello	25	(1)
``My father died this spring''	26	(1)
Those things we see are images of the past	27	(1)
``The persimmons are falling''	28	(2)
Waiting	30	(1)
The Odyssey Poems	31	(15)
The Pigs for Circe in May	41	(3)
``She comes up''	44	(1)
``I didn't want to think''	45	(1)
From The Imaginary Apparitions	46	(4)
Places to Go I-IV & Here	50	(8)
``Dear, Dearest''	57	(1)
A Novel	58	(29)
May 29	67	(1)
July 21. Weedy	68	(1)
The Tree in the Fire	69	(1)
Descartes and the Splendor Of	70	(5)
``From this moment''	75	(1)
Lord Ganesha	76	(2)
Tuesday, October 28, 1969. Bolinas	78	(1)
October 28, Take It Easier	79	(1)
October 29, Wednesday	80	(1)
October 31	81	(1)
November 12	82	(1)
Thursday, 13 November	83	(1)
Monday, November 17	84	(1)
Back in Time	85	(1)
``Never talk ahead''	85	(1)
``I walked home & had some soup''	85	(1)
``This is a Short Story''	86	(1)
Joanne	87	(21)
``Still''	103	(2)
Not Yet	105	(1)
``It's been a long time''	106	(1)
News bulletin from Keith Lampe	107	(1)
Desecheo Notebook	108	(28)
``The rain''	130	(1)
``Bird family''	130	(1)
``This is the way I like to feel the best''	131	(1)
``I want to point out Chat I am not up tight''	131	(1)
``Often I try so hard with stimulants''	132	(1)
``Utmost Disarray''	132	(1)
``No one was watching the tortillas''	133	(1)
``I want a smaller thing in mind''	134	(1)
``Oft have I wondered and climbed''	135	(1)
Trip Out and Fall Back	136	(41)
``A small field of tall golden headed grass''	145	(1)
September	146	(1)
``O fresh day in February''	147	(1)
``Every day I burn a stick of incense''	148	(2)
``When I used to focus''	150	(1)
``This is the first time''	151	(1)
``I don't believe in any''	152	(1)
``The far off pine''	153	(1)
``When I was well into being savored''	154	(1)
``When I step through the door''	155	(1)
``In my imaginary conversation''	156	(1)
``I thought I would never get out here again''	157	(1)
``It is true''	158	(1)
``Looking out to the garden fair''	159	(1)
``It's a great day''	160	(1)
``Wooden walls''	161	(1)
``Of all things for you to go away''	162	(1)
``The apple tree''	163	(1)
``Chill waves''	163	(1)
``Throwing a Crank''	164	(1)
``Is this the Buddha?''	165	(1)
``I don't want to repeat''	166	(1)
``April 4, 1975 Time of wonder''	167	(1)
The Brain Impressed in Its Oddities	168	(1)
``I'm going to be a poet''	168	(1)
Morning Mess	169	(1)
``Bright, sparkling''	170	(1)
Saturday Full Moon September	171	(1)
``I'd like to magic you on this grand occasion''	172	(2)
``There are so many letters I would like to write''	174	(1)
``I am afraid''	175	(1)
Silver City Overlay	176	(1)
Up My Coast	177	(6)
The Crystal in Tamalpais	181	(1)
Destruction	182	(1)
Visit to Maya Land	183	(11)
The Wonderful Focus of You	194	(36)
And with March a Decade in Bolinas	208	(1)
``You believe this stash of writing is `scholarly'?''	209	(1)
``A few days later at the washtub''	210	(1)
The Depressed Ennui before 11 A.M.	211	(1)
``Stripes of red, black, and gold''	212	(1)
``Not much time left''	213	(1)
My how the days fly by in Life Time	214	(1)
Haiku for Charles Berrard on his 40th Birthday	215	(1)
``In my dream last night Deer Lady''	216	(1)
``Yesterday when Diana drops me off on Evergreen''	217	(1)
``The Karmapa spoke to me from a center of light''	218	(1)
Good Manners	219	(1)
``Morning is such a welcome time. It doesn't demand''	220	(1)
``Dinner at Briarcomb, that Artists' posh retreat''	221	(1)
Thanksgiving	222	(1)
December 25	223	(1)
Philip Whalen's Hat	224	(1)
Day after Ted Berrigan's Memorial Reading	225	(1)
January 12, 1984	226	(1)
June 26	226	(1)
Monday Afternoon May 14, 1984:	227	(1)
``Giverny I am for Gee Verr Nee''	228	(1)
Itsy Bitsy Polka Dot Review	229	(1)
Fall Equinox	229	(1)
From Phenomenological	230	(75)
``Self Loathing & Self Pity''	234	(1)
``Tuesday May 7''	235	(1)
Love Boat	236	(2)
Yuppy Wittgensteins Arise!	238	(1)
Miwok Mandarin Bolinas Bamboo	239	(1)
``Ah it's socked in today boys heavy metal''	240	(1)
``You know when you write poetry you find''	241	(1)
``Oh Man is the highest type of animal existing''	242	(2)
``Anything that is created''	244	(2)
``Darrel Gray dies when I am in Mexico''	246	(1)
Tuesday October 27, '87	247	(1)
From the Jataka Tales	248	(1)
Take it O Moon on the run	249	(1)
Narcissus	250	(1)
Saturday February 4	251	(1)
February 7 Tuesday	252	(1)
February 17 Friday	252	(1)
Death Valley Desert Notes	253	(2)
Incense for the Buddha	255	(1)
``The sun is about to pass''	256	(1)
``Haven't I Seen you''	257	(1)
``Cold''	257	(1)
In Memoriam	258	(1)
From the Life of Naropa	259	(1)
``It certainly was divine running into you''	260	(1)
Friday Night	261	(1)
A Story from Easter: He Has Risen	262	(1)
Ocean Parkway Gazing	263	(2)
``Specially For Your Eyes''	265	(1)
Adonis Is Older Than Jesus	266	(3)
``Again recognizing''	269	(1)
``How Does one attain that popular narrative''	270	(1)
Town Hall Reading with Beat Poets	271	(1)
Watching TV	272	(1)
Terrace Roads slumps into the Canyon	273	(1)
I Blinked My Eyes, Looked Up and Everyone Was 25 Years Older	274	(1)
``Replacement Buddhas''	275	(1)
Wake Up	276	(1)
View North	277	(1)
Bob Marley Night Saturday Downtown	278	(1)
``So, Well, now,''	279	(1)
Snapshot for Lew Welch 25 Years Later	280	(2)
``Dear dear little wrentit''	282	(1)
``You?''	283	(1)
Wide Mind	284	(1)
Arthur Okamura's Pipul Tree's Bodhi Leaf	285	(1)
First Nation	286	(1)
``I thought, I'll make it so simple''	287	(1)
Grateful	288	(1)
Stupidly Inspired	289	(1)
For the Pittosporum Tenuifolium Outside the Studio Window	290	(1)
It's So	291	(1)
Naropa approaches his teacher Instruction time again	292	(1)
Try	293	(1)
``The `English' sparrows in the courtyard don't know''	294	(1)
``What you really don't want is some''	295	(1)
Your Heart Is Fine	296	(1)
To Live in This World Again	297	(1)
I Can't Help It	298	(1)
``Whatever It Takes''	299	(2)
The Dharani	301	(1)
Forever and a While	302	(1)
The Fog is halfway over the mesa	303	(2)
Bibliography	305