Selected Poems of Charles Olson

by Charles Olson

• ISBN13: 9780520075283
• ISBN10: 0520075285
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2023-09-01
• Publisher: University of California Press

Summary

"I have assumed a great deal in the selection of the poems from such a large and various number, making them a discourse unavoidably my own as well as any Olson himself might have chosen to offer. I had finally no advice but the long held habit of our using one another, during his life, to act as a measure, a bearing, an unabashed response to what either might write or say."--Robert Creeley A seminal figure in post-World War II literature, Charles Olson has helped define the postmodern sensibility. His poetry embraces themes of empowering love, political responsibility, the wisdom of dreams, the intellect as a unit of energy, the restoration of the archaic, and the transformation of consciousness--all carried in a voice both intimate and grand, American and timeless, impassioned and coolly demanding. In this selection of some 70 poems, Robert Creeley has sought to present a personal reading of Charles Olson's decisive and inimitable work--"unequivocal instances of his genius"--over the many years of their friendship.

Table of Contents

Preface
Move Over	p. 3
La Chute	p. 4
The Kingfishers	p. 5
At Yorktown	p. 13
In Cold Hell, in Thicket	p. 15
For Sappho, Back	p. 22
The Moon Is the Number 18	p. 26
To Gerhardt, There, Among Europe's Things of Which He Has Written Us in His "Brief an Creeley und Olson"	p. 28
The Ring of	p. 40
An Ode on Nativity	p. 42
The Thing Was Moving	p. 47
Merce of Egypt	p. 51
The Death of Europe	p. 54
A Newly Discovered 'Homeric' Hymn	p. 63
"The chain of memory is resurrection . . ."	p. 65
As the Dead Prey Upon Us	p. 72
Variations Done for Gerald Van De Wiele	p. 81
The Librarian	p. 86
Moonset, Gloucester, December 1, 1957, 1:58 AM	p. 89
The Song	p. 90
The Distances	p. 91
Crossed-Legged, the Spider and the Web	p. 94
May 31, 1961	p. 95
The Lamp	p. 96
"As snow lies on the hill . . ."	p. 97
"the Heart is a clock . . ."	p. 98
Maximus, to himself	p. 101
The Twist	p. 104
a Plantation a beginning	p. 110
Maximus, to Gloucester	p. 114
Some Good News	p. 117
John Burke	p. 128
April Today Main Street	p. 132
MAXIMUS, FROM DOGTOWN - I	p. 139
Maximus to Gloucester, Letter 27 [withheld]	p. 147
Maximus Letter # whatever	p. 150
Maximus, at the Harbor	p. 152
A Later Note on Letter # 15	p. 155
CHRONICLES	p. 156
THE GULF OF MAINE	p. 159
"And now let all the ships come in . . ."	p. 163
"'at the boundary of the mighty world' . . ."	p. 164
"I looked up and saw . . ."	p. 169
"having descried the nation . . ."	p. 170
"Main Street / is deserted . . ."	p. 171
"Imbued / with the light . . ."	p. 175
West Gloucester	p. 176
Stevens song	p. 178
Maximus to himself June 1964	p. 185
COLE'S ISLAND	p. 186
Maximus, in Gloucester Sunday, LXV	p. 189
"Swimming through the air, in schools upon the highways . . ."	p. 191
Maximus of Gloucester	p. 192
"I have been an ability - a machine . . ."	p. 193
"Bottled up for days . . ."	p. 200
Got me home, the light snow gives the air, falling	p. 201
"When do poppies bloom . . ."	p. 203
"The hour of evening . . ."	p. 204
"The boats' lights in the dawn now going so swiftly . . ."	p. 209
"Out of the light of Heaven . . ."	p. 212
Hotel Steinplatz, Berlin, December 25 (1966)	p. 213
Celestial evening, October 1967	p. 215
The Telesphere	p. 217
"Added to / making a Republic . . ."	p. 218
"Wholly absorbed . . ."	p. 219
"I live underneath / the light of day . . ."	p. 220
"the Blow is Creation . . ."	p. 221
Index of First Lines	p. 223
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