Joanne Kyger : NOT VERACRUZ
(Libellum. 2007)
$10
ISBN 0-9752993-3-6
Cover by Vivien Bittencourt
“She's one of our hidden treasures — the poet who really links the Beats, the Spicer Circle, the Bolinas poets, the NY School and the language poets, and the only poet who can be said to do all of the above.” — Ron Silliman
This collection of poems written in January-March, 2006, in place of a planned trip to Veracruz, reveals Kyger at the top of her form — spinning light, everyday, observations that suddenly resonate with philosophical depth and political commitment. Her masterful freedom with form accrues visual power across the page in laconic, down-home notes on the septic tank, teenage horror movies, the neighbor’s son, and insomnia. Powerful wit enhances the journey; she’s in it for the long haul, and when she writes about the government, you want to pay attention.
Joanne Kyger is one of the central “outrider” poets of our time, and one of the most glamorous. From Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer’s Sunday Meetings to Japan and India with Gary Snyder to becoming a mainstay of the poets’ community in Bolinas, California, beginning in 1968 and continuing until today, Kyger has always tapped into poetic energies at once everyday and metaphysical. Her books of poetry include About Now: Collected Poems (2007), As Ever: Selected Poems (2002), Just Space: Poems, 1979-1989 (1991), Going On: Selected Poems, 1958-1980 (1983), The Wonderful Focus of You (1979), All This Every Day (1975), Places To Go (1970), and The Tapestry and the Web (1965). Her books of poetry and prose journals include Strange Big Moon: The Japan and India Journals, 1960-1964 (2000), Mexico Blonde (1981) and Trip Out and Fall Back (1974).
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