I do not like broadsides. Never have. I must admit that I find the Oyez/Auerhahn Signature to Petition on Ten Pound Island Asked of My By Mr. Vincent Ferrini by Charles Olson very tempting. Every summer I stop by Gloucester and drive around Fort Square, get out of the car and gaze at Ten Pound Island with my wife and breathe in the salt air. In fact, I might buy it tomorrow. I could use a bit of that air right about now.
But this is a moment of weakness. I like posters and I love handbills, probably because they do something, as Olson would say they are of use. Broadsides just hang there and look pretty. Unless they do not, like the Ginsberg Who To Be Kind To, which is ugly as sin in my opinion.
The Olson broadside also stands out because it is just about the only Oyez first series broadside that is remotely interesting to me. Bob Hawley managed to gather all the Bay Area related writers I do not care about.
Michael McClure - Two For Bruce Conner: I can dig Conner, but McClure not so much.
Brother Antonius - The Rose of Solitude: Brother Antonius and William Everson. Never got into either although I find myself intensely interested by Waldport.
Josephine Miles - In Identity: Madeline Gleason, Josephine Miles, and Helen Adam, the three fates of San Francisco, while they are spinning, measuring and cutting verse, I am sawing wood.
Robert Duncan - Wine: I really want to drink deeply of his poetry, but like hard liquor I cannot stomach it.
Robert Creeley - Two Poems: Despite faking it for Kyle, I am not the Creeley fan I proclaim to be. I am actually more drawn to him as a publisher and editor. I absolutely love Black Mountain Review, Divers Press and The New American Story Anthology.
David Meltzer - The Blackest Rose: The interview with Meltzer in Mimeo Mimeo is the most interesting thing I have read by him.
Denise Levertov - City Psalm: I am dedicating my summer to given her a fair shake. I have showed her the hand for so long without really reading her that it is a personal embarrassment.
Gary Snyder - Hop, Skip and Jump: I do not like being preached to, unless you do not take yourself seriously. Good Ginsberg does not; Snyder always does. If Snyder tries to be one of the guys, he fails.
William Bronk - The Cipher: I honestly would not know this guy's work if I was wiping my ass with it. Probably my loss because I read an essay recently on Bronk and his exclusion from Allen's New American Anthology that was very interesting and even made Bronk's poems so as well. He is on the summer list with Levertov.
All these broadsides were commissioned by Hawley in 1964 and printed by Auerhahn Press in editions of 350. There was all kinds of Hoyemesque (this is an official bibliographic term for small press frills and nonsense designed for generating some extra cents) BS involving complete set portfolios and Mrs. Hawley scrapbooking and hand made or mould made papers, which further turns me off to these broadsides.
The Rose of Solitude above was never folded as it was designed to be. I have the feeling that if I was in the room with all these broadsides, I would be smitten and maybe even seduced. The Olson broadside had me at hello. I flipped though Lee Bartlett's biography of Everson and the story surrounding this poem happens to be one of great passion and desire, which I would not mind learning more about. Put that book on the summer reading list as well. It is getting to be a busy summer. I am looking forward to seeing Ten Pound Island.
JB
MIMEO MIMEO #8: CURATORS' CHOICE features 16 bibliophiles on 6 highlights from their personal or institutional collections. Contributors include Steve Clay, Wendy Burk, Tony White, Brian Cassidy, Thurston Moore, J.A. Lee, Michelle Strizever, Adam Davis, Michael Basinski, Joseph Newland, Alastair Johnston, Tate Shaw, Michael Kasper, Steve Woodall, Molly Schwartzberg, Nancy Kuhl, James Maynard, and the Utah posse (Becky Thomas, Marnie Powers-Torrey, Craig Dworkin, Emily Tipps, Luise Poulton, & David Wolske)
MIMEO MIMEO #7: THE LEWIS WARSH ISSUE is the first magazine ever devoted in its entirety to poet, novelist, publisher, teacher, and collage artist Lewis Warsh. Warsh was born in 1944 in the Bronx, co-founded Angel Hair Magazine and Books with Anne Waldman in 1966, and went on to co-found United Artists Magazine and Books with Bernadette Mayer in 1977. He is the author of over thirty books of poetry, fiction and autobiography, the Director of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Long Island University in Brooklyn, and as you’ll soon discover, so much more. Includes an introduction by Daniel Kane, an interview conducted by Steve Clay, 10 new stories, 5 new poems, dozens of photographs and collages, and an anecdotal bibliography.
OUT OF PRINT
MIMEO MIMEO #6: THE POETRY ISSUE is devoted to new work by eight poets who have consistently composed quality writing that has influenced and inspired generations since the golden era of the mimeo revolution. Contributors include Bill Berkson, John Godfrey, Ted Greenwald, Joanne Kyger, Kit Robinson, Rosmarie Waldrop, Lewis Warsh, and Geoffrey Young. Cover art by George Schneeman.
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MIMEO MIMEO #3: THE DANNY SNELSON ISSUE examines the relationship between structuralism and the poetries of the mimeo era by presenting a detailed analysis of Form (a Cambridge-UK magazine published in 1966) and Alcheringa (a journal published by Boston University in 1975), two exemplary gatherings that illuminate the historical, material and social circumstances under which theory informed art (and vice versa) in the early works of some of today's most celebrated experimental writers. Also includes a special insert, The Infernal Method, written, designed and printed by Aaron Cohick (NewLights Press).
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MIMEO MIMEO #2: features Emily McVarish on her artist's book Flicker; James Maynard on poet Robert Duncan's early experiences as an editor and typesetter; Derek Beaulieu on the relationship between the influential Canadian poetry journal Tish and Black Mountain College; and an extensive interview with Australian poet and typographer Alan Loney conducted by Kyle Schlesinger. Cover is by Emily McVarish.
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