Mule kick blues : and last poems / Michael McClure ; edited with an Introduction by Garrett Caples.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McClure, Michael, author.

Contributor:

Caples, Garrett T., editor.

Language:

English

Genre:

Poetry.

Physical Description:

xxvii, 115 pages ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Mule kick blues and last poems

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : City Lights Books, 2021.

Summary:

"The final book of poems from a Beat Generation legend, Mule Kick Blues finds McClure restlessly innovating until the end. Completed over the last years of his life, Mule Kick Blues is the final book of poems by Beat Generation legend Michael McClure. Taking its title from an innovative sequence of homages to blues musicians like Leadbelly, Willie Dixon, and Howlin' Wolf, and evoking Kerouac's concept of "blues" poems, Mule Kick Blues contains stark meditations on the poet's mortality as well as the nature and Zen poems for which McClure is known. With shout-outs to lifelong friends like Philip Whalen, Diane di Prima, and Gary Snyder, the long poem "Fragments of Narcissus," and the profound and moving sequence "Death Poems," Mule Kick Blues is a definitive statement by one of the most significant American poets of the last 60 years"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

I p. 3

"Mortality is Beauty The Beast Spirit" p. 5

Age-ing p. 6

Winter Solstice p. 9

Four A.M. p. 11

This Body p. 12

Thinking of the Poet Su Tung-p'o p. 17

((Dharma)) p. 19

Spring/Fall p. 21

From Dogan Sonata Two p. 24

Death Poems p. 26

1 p. 26

2 p. 28

3 p. 29

4 p. 30

Restore the Ordinary p. 32

Two Faces p. 34

Layers p. 35

Listening as Dust p. 37

II Mule Kick Blues p. 39

Mule Kick Blues p. 41

Edge Chunk For Willie Dixon p. 49

Black Wine p. 58

Deep Mud Blues p. 60

Howlin' Blues p. 62

Leadbelly Blues p. 64

Forty Songs p. 65

III Fragments of Narcissus p. 67

IV Rites of Beasts p. 81

Tantra p. 83

Flower Garland Froth p. 84

"Make the Present Moment the True Source" p. 94

"Amiri-Osiris" p. 96

For Jack Spicer p. 98

The Real One p. 100

A Black Notebook p. 101

For Jack Kerouac p. 101

For Diane di Prima p. 102

For Zoketsu Norman Fischer p. 103

For Norma Schlesinger p. 104

A Garnet p. 105

"guardians/rights of beast" p. 107

Dharma Exercises p. 108

The Fleshy Nave p. 111.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780872868144

0872868141

OCLC:

1196245180