May 29th, 2009 / 9:56 am
 Author Spotlight

A Poem is a Counterpunching Radio: Jack Spicer Better Late than Never

There should be no rules for this but it should be
simultaneous if at all.
Homosexuality is essentially being alone. Which is
a fight against the capitalist bosses who do not want
us to be alone. Alone we are dangerous.
Our dissatisfaction could ruin America. Our love
could ruin the universe if we let it.
If we let our love flower into the true revolution
we will be swamped with offers for beds.

– “Homosexuality and Marxism” (from Three Marxist Essays)

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Several months ago Wesleyan University Press sent me My Vocabulary Did This To Me: The Collected Poems of Jack Spicer (Peter Gizzi & Kevin Killian, eds). I got side-tracked and hadn’t really looked at it, until the other day when I read Language, a collection from later in Spicer’s life (he died at age 40, in 1965). It right about knocked me on my ass, and you’ll be hearing more about Vocabulary in the weeks to come, but for right now, here’s some of Spicer’s work that’s available online courtesy of the Electronic Poetry Center. Also: audio at PennSound. Also, if you’re feeling like you need a proper introduction to JS, here again is Jared White’s fine long essay on Vocabulary, which I linked to in passing several months back.

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12 Comments

  1. May 29th, 2009 / 3:49 pm Ethan—

      finished “My Vocabulary…” a few weeks ago and i’m really glad to see some pretty good discussion going on regarding Spicer. he did some really great work. there’s a pretty interesting piece that explores his work in “After Lorca” and gets into the idea of ‘translation’ (as Spicer engaged in it) at Cipher Journal’s site. that’s:

      http://www.cipherjournal.com/html/johnson_ducharme_i.html

      for anyone who’s interested.

  2. May 29th, 2009 / 11:49 am Ethan—

      finished “My Vocabulary…” a few weeks ago and i’m really glad to see some pretty good discussion going on regarding Spicer. he did some really great work. there’s a pretty interesting piece that explores his work in “After Lorca” and gets into the idea of ‘translation’ (as Spicer engaged in it) at Cipher Journal’s site. that’s:

      http://www.cipherjournal.com/html/johnson_ducharme_i.html

      for anyone who’s interested.

  3. May 29th, 2009 / 4:26 pm pr—

      I love his poems.

  4. May 29th, 2009 / 12:26 pm pr—

      I love his poems.

  5. May 29th, 2009 / 5:38 pm john sakkis—
  6. May 29th, 2009 / 1:38 pm john sakkis—
  7. May 29th, 2009 / 9:26 pm JW Veldhoen—

      I bought the poems at the readings at St. Mark’s and I’ve only started. Interesting to read some of Robin Blazer’s essays alongside.

  8. May 29th, 2009 / 5:26 pm JW Veldhoen—

      I bought the poems at the readings at St. Mark’s and I’ve only started. Interesting to read some of Robin Blazer’s essays alongside.

  9. May 30th, 2009 / 1:17 am andrew—

      that poem is really good. i am probably going to buy that book now because of this blog entry.

  10. May 29th, 2009 / 9:17 pm andrew—

      that poem is really good. i am probably going to buy that book now because of this blog entry.

  11. May 30th, 2009 / 3:01 am Jonny Ross—

      that’s about the greatest book title ever.

  12. May 29th, 2009 / 11:01 pm Jonny Ross—

      that’s about the greatest book title ever.