Published between 1968 and 1975, Adventures in Poetry was edited by poet Larry Fagin and printed and assembled at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery.
Adventures in Poetry
Tag Archives: Helen Adam
Adventures in Poetry
Published between 1968 and 1975, Adventures in Poetry was edited by poet Larry Fagin and printed and assembled at The Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery. Featured in its pages is writing by many poets associated with the first and second generation of the New York School. Surreal and often playful, the work provides a valuable access point into a vibrant and social community of writers who overlapped both in life and on the page.
Alongside poetry and art, Adventures in Poetry also includes a number of journal, diary, and travelogue entries.
1. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 1, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, March 1968
First edition, side-stapled in printed and photo-illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 70 pages. Cover by Ron Padgett. Illustrations by George Schneeman and Joe Brainard
- Contents:
- Joe Ceravolo – “Night Ocean”
Joe Ceravolo – “Night Swim”
Joe Ceravolo – “Consolation”
Joe Ceravolo – “Panorama”
Joe Ceravolo – “Separation”
Joe Ceravolo – “Forgive Me”
Joe Ceravolo – “Holiday Dinner”
Joe Ceravolo – “Fog”
Joe Ceravolo – “Sleep”
Joe Ceravolo – “Jungle Love”
Joe Ceravolo – “Nothing”
James Schuyler – “Amy Lowell Thoughts”
James Schuyler – “Milk”
Ted Berrigan – “For Tom Veitch”
Dick Gallup – “The Boot-Blacks, A Play in Three Acts”
Anne Waldman – “Economy”
Anne Waldman – “Getting Light”
Ron Padgett – “8 Ball”
Johnny Stanton – “from Mangled Hands”
Tom Clark – “Bijous”
John Giorno – “Flavor Grabber”
Ted Berrigan – “from Clear the Range”
Guillaume Apollinaire – “Julie or The Rose” (trans. Christine Grodzicki and George Tysh)
Dick Gallup – “La Boheme”
- Joe Ceravolo – “Night Ocean”
2. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 2, edited by Larry Fagin
San Francisco: Adventures in Poetry, July 1968
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 90 pages. Cover by Joe Brainard. Illustrations by Leon, George Schneeman, Ron Padgett, and Bob Jenney.
- Contents:
- Edwin Denby – “from Scream In A Cave”
Beaumont & Beaumont – “from Furtive Days”
Joe Brainard – “Jamaica Diary”
Lewis Warsh – “New York Diary”
Tom Clark – “from Riot the Garrick Theatre”
Dick Gallup – “Life of Tom Veitch”
Tom Veitch – “from The Transfigured”
Johnny Stanton – “from The Jissom Trail”
Kenward Elmslie – “Peaches Littlejohn”
Anne Waldman – “from The Egypt Journal”
Ron Padgett & Tom Veitch – “from Star Gut”
Jim Carroll – “from a diary”
Ron Padgett – “The New Plagiarism”
Bill Berkson – “In the American Rain”
Larry Fagin – “Two Dog Stories”
John Ashbery & James Schuyler – “from Nest of Ninnies”
Kenward Elmslie – “Breach Baby”
Michael Brownstein – “Kites”
Francis Picabia – “5 Minute Intermission”
Tom Disch – “Sinking Into Trouble”
Johnny Stanton – “In the Moonlight”
Pierre Reiter – “Craze Man Whiliiker”
- Edwin Denby – “from Scream In A Cave”
3. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 3, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, January 1969
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 58 pages, mimeograph printed by Don Santina at the San Francisco Neighborhood Arts Program. Cover by Gordon Baldwin.
- Contents:
- Clark Coolidge – “Amount”
Francis Picabia – “Drawings by the Girl without a Mother” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Tom Veitch – “from The Luis Armed Story”
Aram Saroyan – “Electric Poetry”
- Clark Coolidge – “Amount”
4. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 4, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Summer 1969
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 56 pages. Cover by Ed Ruscha. Illustration by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Thirty-five is gone…”
Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Bobbie, when I punch you…”
Ted Berrigan – “Entrance”
Ted Berrigan – “El Greco”
Ted Berrigan – “It’s Important”
Ted Berrigan – “Grey Morning”
Ted Berrigan – “Hash for Breakfast”
Ted Berrigan – “Dial-A-Poem”
Ted Berrigan – “Cock of the Walk”
Ted Berrigan – “Anne’s Birthday: April 2nd 1968”
Kenward Elmslie – “Waking Up”
John Giorno – “Cunt”
Lewis Warsh – “Questions of Travel”
Lewis Warsh – [untitled] “The woodchuck waddles away…”
Lewis Warsh – “Hatred”
Lewis Warsh – “Two People”
Lewis Warsh – “Drops”
Dick Gallup – “Eskimoes Again”
Dick Gallup – “Nite Light”
Dick Gallup – “Add Water to this Urn”
Dick Gallup – “The Sharpest Knives in the World”
Dick Gallup – “Life Says OK”
Dick Gallup – “Dive Bomber”
Dick Gallup – “Chicken Wire”
Michael Brownstein – “The Fledgling”
Michael Brownstein – “The Booklets”
Michael Brownstein – “In and Out of Paris”
Michael Brownstein – “In Search of the Miraculous, for Dick Gallup”
Michael Brownstein – “Sonnet”
Ted Berrigan – “Babe Rainbow”
- Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Thirty-five is gone…”
5. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 5, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, January 1970
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 124 pages. Cover by George Schneeman. Illustrations by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Tony Towle – “The Insects”
Tony Towle – “Snow”
Tony Towle – “We Plunged into the Western Hemisphere”
Tony Towle – “Poem, the Dramatic Monologue”
Tony Towle – “Ballade”
Tony Towle – “Barbarossa”
Tony Towle – [untitled] “A skylight of wire…”
Tony Towle – [untitled] “Necessities are lacking…”
Tony Towle – “Sunday”
Tony Towle – “Ode”
Tony Towle – “Yeats”
Tony Towle – “On Water Island”
Tony Towle – “Lines”
Tony Towle – “Scenes from the Life of Christ”
Ron Padgett – “Reading Proust”
Frank O’HAra – “To the Poem”
Frank O’HAra – “Lisztiana”
Frank O’HAra – “To Edwin Denby”
Frank O’HAra – [untitled] “There’s nothing worse…”
Frank O’HAra – “The Arboretum”
Frank O’HAra – “A Homage”
Frank O’HAra – “Spleen”
Frank O’HAra – [untitled] “The stars are tighter…”
Frank O’HAra – “A Quiet Poem”
Bill Berkson – “From a Childhood, for Joe Brainard”
Bill Berkson – “Dangerous Enemies”
Bill Berkson – “Tastes”
Anne Waldman – “Brinks of Fame”
Ron Padgett – “Wax Museum”
Aram Saroyan – “Introduction”
Aram Saroyan – [untitled] “Everybody loves…”
Aram Saroyan – “Gailyn”
Ted Berrigan – “Tough Brown Coat, for Jim Carroll”
Ted Berrigan – “To Anne”
Ted Berrigan – “Like Poem, to Joan Fagin”
Ted Berrigan – “In Bed”
Ted Berrigan – “Life in the Future, for Donna”
Ted Berrigan – “Prose & Poetry, to Alice”
Ted Berrigan – “Hall of Mirrors, for Kristin Lems”
Ted Berrigan – “To Southhampton”
Ted Berrigan – “Ann Arbor Song”
Joe Brainard – “The Banana Book”
Ron Padgett – “A Whiff of Mint”
Richard Fields – “The Yellow-Breasted Bird”
John Godfrey – [untitled] “The gravity of our situation…”
John Godfrey – “Rolling April”
John Godfrey – “First Taste”
John Godfrey – “Year Out”
John Godfrey – “A Woman More Graced”
John Godfrey – “Touch”
John Godfrey – “Rain Waste”
Anne Waldman – “Under the Influence of”
Anne Waldman – “Up Here, as in India”
Aram Saroyan – “Pool of Fluff”
Aram Saroyan – “A Cartoon of Energy”
Aram Saroyan – “Aunt & Uncle”
Aram Saroyan – “My Orchestra is Ready”
Aram Saroyan – “A Joint open Hearing”
Harris Schiff – “Cross Country”
Ron Padgett – “The Story of St-Pol Roux”
Ted Berrigan – “London Air”
Kenward Elmslie – “Chinese Creep”
Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “one bow who…”
Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “for set via…”
Charles North – “After Vaughan”
John Ashbery – “100 Multiple-Choice Questions”
Jim Brodey – “Graveside”
Jim Brodey – “God Help Us”
Jim Brodey – “Red Lilac”
Jim Brodey – “Heart-Send”
Jim Brodey – “Heartfield, to Ron Cooper”
Jim Brodey – “Thought-Cycle”
Jim Brodey – “Imitation Brodey”
Ted Greenwald – “Chat”
Ted Greenwald – “The Such Thing”
Ted Greenwald – “Tropical Dispatch, for Peter S.”
Ted Greenwald – “Having a Wonderful Time”
Ron Padgett – “Obscure Destinies”
- Tony Towle – “The Insects”
6. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 6, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, June 1970
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 64 pages. Cover by Jim Dine.
- Contents:
- Michael Brownstein – “Something for Everybody
James Schuyler – “Buildings”
James Schuyler – “Sometimes”
James Schuyler – “Alice Faye at Ruby Foo’s”
James Schuyler – “An East Window on Elizabeth Street, for Bob Dash”
James Schuyler – “Spring”
James Schuyler – “Scarlet Tanager”
James Schuyler – [untitled] “Gulls loudly insist…”
James Schuyler – [untitled] “Swimming in the memorial park pond…”
James Schuyler – “Closed Gentian Distances”
James Schuyler – “A Sun Cab”
Scott Cohen – “Car”
Scott Cohen – “Jane”
Scott Cohen – “Bill Monroe’s Instrumentds”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Night Again”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Girl”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Night Letter”
Peter Schjeldahl – “God”
Peter Schjeldahl – “M”
Peter Schjeldahl – “For the Night Riders”
Peter Schjeldahl – “To Speak is to Lie”
Tom Clark – “A Sailor’s Life”
Hiton Obenzinger – “Motto over a Dorr”
Hiton Obenzinger – “From a Fork”
Michel Brownstein – “Footprints on the Moon”
Frank Lima – “Underground with the Oriole, for Joe & Rosemary”
Frank Lima – “Salad Exit”
Frank Lima – “February ’68”
Frank Lima – “Demitasse, for Patsy Southgate”
Frank Lima – “Prospero”
Frank Lima – “Harbor”
Trevor Winkfield – Robinson Crusoe”
Blaise Cendrars – “Roof Garden” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “On the Hudson” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “Amphitryon” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “Office” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “Girl” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “Young Man” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “Work” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “Trestle Work” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “The Thousand Islands” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Blaise Cendrars – “Laboratory” (trans. Ron Padgett)
Tom Veitch – “Cooked Zeros”
- Michael Brownstein – “Something for Everybody
7. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 7, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, February 1971
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 62 pages. Cover by Aram Saroyan.
- Contents:
- Aram Saroyan – “from The Letter Book”
John Giorno – “from The American Book of the Dead”
Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “ace act ado”
Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “gee get gib”
Clark Coolidge – [untitled] “pro pea pee”
Joe Brainard – “Muy Malo”
Joe Brainard – “At Day’s End”
Joe Brainard – “Short Story”
Joe Brainard – “1970”
Joe Brainard – “Real Life”
Joe Brainard – “Art”
Joe Brainard – “Henry”
Joe Brainard – “Rim of the Desert”
Joe Brainard – “Life”
Joe Brainard – “How to Be Alone Again”
Joe Brainard – “Friday, Nov. 27, 1970”
Joe Brainard – “Thursday, December 8, 1970”
Vincent Katz – “Pro Football”
Bernadette Mayer – “from Moving”
Byrd Hoffman – [untitled] “And now in saying something…”
- Aram Saroyan – “from The Letter Book”
8. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 8, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Summer 1971
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 60 pages. Cover by Rudy Burckhardt.
- Contents:
- Dick Gallup – “Charged Particles”
Lewis Warsh – “True Colors”
Ron Padgett and Joe Brainard – “Cherry”
Steve Malmude – “To Portland”
Andrei Codrescu – “Unchosen Things”
Andrei Codrescu – “Thru a Grill”
Andrei Codrescu – “Comedia dell’Arte”
Andrei Codrescu – “To your Father”
Andrei Codrescu – “Cossey at the Bots”
Andrei Codrescu – “Debts”
Richard Kolmar – “Voluntary”
Richard Kolmar – “Part of an Elegy”
Glen Baxter – “Symbar”
Glen Baxter – “From the Barge”
Glen Baxter – “Apponitmantes”
Glen Baxter – “Ack-acks”
Glen Baxter – “Utopia Parkway”
Philip Whalen – “Scenes of Life at the Capital”
- Dick Gallup – “Charged Particles”
9. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 9, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Spring 1972
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 125 pages. Cover art by John Giorno.
- Contents:
- Jennifer Bartlett – “from Jennifer Losch: A Biography”
Glen Baxter – “Morbihan”
Glen Baxter – “Chauderon”
Joe Brainard – “Poem” (“Kaleidoscopic umbrellas…”)
Rebecca Brown – “The Day I Crossed Traffic against Traffic”
Rebecca Brown – “Dissatisfaction”
Michael Brownstein – “What America’s Thinking”
William Burroughs – “Distant Heels”
Clark Coolidge – “Basil Rathbone’s Bathrobe”
Edwin Denby – “Army Songs”
Jim Dine – “The Short History of New York”
Joe Brainard – “A True Story”
Louis Eilshemius – “An Unusual Inventor”
Kenward Elmslie – “Eventual Bruises”
Kenward Elmslie – “Ground Hog Day Pensee”
Mary Ferrari – “The Blue and Yellow”
Gilbert and George – “We are only Human Sculptors”
Allen Ginsberg – “New England in hte Fall: Autumn Gold”
John Godfrey – “Idiots”
John Godfrey – “Sympathetic Fallacy”
Joe Brainard – “No Story”
Ted Greenwald – [untitled] “shut down…”
Ted Greenwald – [untitled] “our faces…”
Ted Greenwald – “Comb”
Ted Greenwald – [untitled] “poems pile up…”
Alice Hedges – “The Door”
John Koethe – “Some”
Valery Larbaud – “La Neige”
Glen Baxter – “Glove Soup”
Steve Malmude – “Companion Poems”
Steve Malmude – “Stove & Lamp”
Harry Mathews – “The Dream-Work”
Bernadette Mayer – “3 X’s”
Pat Nolan – “Vision”
Pat Nolan – “A Controlled Habit”
Joe Brainard – “What’s Cooking”
Charles North – “To The Book”
Charles North – “Elizabethan and Nova Scotian Music”
Charles North – “Naming Colors”
Hilton Obenzinger – “The Brunt”
Peter Orlovsky – [untitled] “A Year and 1/2 Ago”
Maureen Owen – “Digging Sassafras in July”
Maureen Owen – “O Propitious Constellation!”
Ron Padgett – “Gentlemen Prefer Carrots”
Jonathan Rosenstein – “Vacuum”
Jonathan Rosenstein – “The Bullring”
Jonathan Rosenstein – “Popcorn”
Jonathan Rosenstein – “Coffee Service”
Jonathan Rosenstein – “Heh-Heh”
Jonathan Rosenstein – “Charm”
Harris Schiff – [untitled] “twilight…”
Harris Schiff – [untitled] “the battery…”
Harris Schiff – “Memorial for Paul Blackburn Oct 31 1971”
Harris Schiff – “Too, for Bernadette Mayer”
Joe Brainard – “Grandmother”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Theater”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Great Poet”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Trepanation”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Russian Escape”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Dynamite”
James Schuyler – “A Vermont Diary”
Richard Snow – “Philo Vance”
George Stanley – “Pitchfork”
Tony Towle – “On Spring Street”
Anne Waldman – “Little Poem in Search of the Past”
Anne Waldman – [untitled] “if you do this…”
Lewis Warsh – “Single File”
Joseph White – [untitled] “turn the day over…”
Joseph White – [untitled] “while tearing up the platform…”
Joseph White – [untitled] “out to the corner…”
Joseph White – [untitled] “the back of a drawing…”
B. Wilkie – “Notes on My Work, 1971”
Joe Brainard – “Poem” (“Roses are red…”)
- Jennifer Bartlett – “from Jennifer Losch: A Biography”
10. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 10, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, 1973
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 94 pages. Cover taken from a “Tijuana Bible”.
- Contents:
- This is the anonymous issue published without author, editor, publication and publisher names.
11. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 11, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Spring 1974
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 121 pages. Cover art by Rory McEwen.
- Contents:
- Anne Waldman – “Fast Speaking Woman”
Michael McClure – “from Fleas”
Fielding Dawson – “from Oz – with an X”
Clark Coolidge – “Coda to The Maintains”
Bruce Boyd – “Introduction”
Ron Padgett – “Wilson ’57”
John Wieners – “A Superficial Estimation”
Tony Towle – “Autobiography”
Joe Ceravolo – “Water Over Stones”
James Schuyler – “A Treasury of Birthday Thoughts”
Ebbe Borregaard – “October Seventh Poem”
Guillaume Apollinaire – “Zone” (trans. Ron Padgett)
- Anne Waldman – “Fast Speaking Woman”
12. ADVENTURES IN POETRY, No. 12, edited by Larry Fagin
New York: Adventures in Poetry, Summer 1975
First edition, side-stapled in printed and illustrated wrappers, 8.5″ x 11″, 94 pages. Cover art unattributed.
- Contents:
- Gregory Corso – “Verse”
Ron Padgett – “Excerpt from a Work in Progress” (“And they’re off…”)
Alverna Brodecky – “Letter”
Frank O’Hara – “To Norman, En Voyage”
Joseph LeSueur – “A Note on the Preceding Poem”
Jack Spicer – “Babel 3”
Jack Spicer – “Dardenella”
Jack Spicer – “Lives of the Philosophers: Diogenes”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Lack of oxygen…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Invisible zombies…”
Jack Spicer – “Spider Song”
John Wieners – “There are Very Important Minutes”
John Wieners – “I’ve Lived Here Longer than Anybody Else…”
John Wieners – “Greer”
John Wieners – “Home Surgery at Merchant Marine”
Bobbie Louise Hawkins – “Phone Call”
Bobbie Louise Hawkins – “Conversation between Five Women”
Charles North – “Two Pathetic Songs”
Steve Malmude – “Dedication”
Steve Malmude – “Duchess”
John Ashbury – “Once Upon a Time”
Stanley Kunitz – “A Blessing of Women”
David Meltzer – “from Harps”
Mary Ferrari – “Fiery Easter, 1972”
Mary Ferrari – “The Earth Within”
Mary Ferrari – “The Lamp”
Kenneth Koch – “The Apes of Banzona”
Red Grooms – [untitled] “House painted…”
Red Grooms – [untitled] “Cloud look down…”
Bill Zavatsky – “Tonight”
Bill Zavatsky – “Announcement”
Bill Zavatsky – “The New Capitalism”
Bill Zavatsky – “The Influence of Flowers”
Helen Adam – “Cheerless Junkie’s Song”
Allen Ginsberg – “End Vietnam War”
Ted Greenwald – “The Coast”
Tony Towle – “Quotes”
Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Tenement”
Alfred Starr Hamilton – “The Flag”
Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Pink Ants”
Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Lime Honey”
Alfred Starr Hamilton – “Night”
Lewis MacAdams – “Ohio Blue Tip”
Ed Sanders – “The Critic”
Ed Sanders – “The 34th Year”
John Godfrey – “Morning Poem”
John Godfrey – “Evening Song”
Valery Larbaud – “Private Devotions” (tans. Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky)
Ron Padgett and Bill Zavatsky – “Notes”
Michael Palmer – “Without Music, 2”
Dale Herd – “My Old Man”
Dale Herd – “Blood”
Dale Herd – “Welfare”
Simon Schuchat – “Poem” (“the leaves are turning…”)
Carter Ratcliff – “Arrivederci, Modernismo”
Son House – “Dry Spell Blues”
- Gregory Corso – “Verse”
Online Resources:
From a Secret Location – Adventures in Poetry
—
The Spicer Circle’s J
Jack Spicer’s J ran for eight issues: Nos. 1–5 were edited by Spicer in North Beach where contributions were left in a box marked “J” in The Place, a bar on Grant Avenue in San Francisco; Nos. 6 and 7 (an Apparition of the late J) were edited by George Stanley in San Francisco and New York City respectively while no. 8 was edited by Harold Dull in Rome. Spicer believed that poetry was for poets and the magazine had a small circulation but cast a long shadow.
Open Space
Stan Persky began Open Space in 1964, printing 50 copies of each issue on a multilith machine (whereas J was mimeographed). Like J, and M, Open Space was a very local (North Beach) magazine whose contents seemed primarily intended for those who contributed, including: Helen Adam, Robin Blaser, Ebbe Borregaard, Richard Duerden, Harold Dull, Larry Fagin, Jess Collins, Jack Spicer and George Stanley. The magazine was also “quite spicy and a little gossipy, for instance, labeling the famed 1955 reading at the Six Gallery as ‘creamed cottage cheese.’”
1. OPEN SPACE, No. 0, A PROSPECTUS, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, January 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 34 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Translations by Max Knight.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “A Proposition”
Christian Morgenstern – “The Moonsheep”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “This ocean, humiliating in its disguises…”
George Stanley – “Choir”
anonymous – “The Constant Preaching to the Mob”
Allen Ginsberg – “Owl”
Richard Duerden – “A Card for the Tarot”
anonymous – “Okeanos”
- Stan Persky – “A Proposition”
2. OPEN SPACE, No. 1, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Collage by Graham Mackintosh.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Come-On”
Robin Blaser – “Psyche”
Hartford Mutual – “No Possum, No Sop, No Taters”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – I (eye)”
Janet Thormann – “The Knight of Cups”
Jack Spicer – “Sporting Life”
Link – [untitled] “the insane lady…”
Link – [untitled] “Like frozen water…”
Lewis Ellingham – [untitled] “Rock, salt and spray, the angels…”
James Alexander – “Amoralesay”
George Stanley – [untitled] “You listen to the leaves, or watch the leaves…”
Helen Adam – “Two Songs for Lewis Ellingham”
Gregory Corso – “Mortal Infliction”
anonymous – “Orders”
- Stan Persky – “Come-On”
3. OPEN SPACE, Valentine Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 60 pages, lithography printed printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Photography by Lartigue.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Alibi”
C. – “In Despair”
C. – “The Marriage”
Bill Roberts – “Recess”
anonymous – “What Happened : Prelude”
Robert Duncan – “Postscript for Open Space, January 1964”
Robin Blaser – “The Prints”
Robin Blaser – “Translation”
Stan Persky – “Gourmet Cooking”
JA – “‘The Island’ by Robert Creeley”
- Stan Persky – “Alibi”
4. OPEN SPACE, No. 2, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, February 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 62 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Illustration by Fran Herndon, collage by Graham Mackintosh..
- Contents:
- Cassius Clay – “I’m the King”
Stan Persky – “Second Base”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – II (marginal)”
Jack Spicer – “This is Submitted to Your Valentine Contest”
James Herndon – [untitled] “He went outside…”
Gene Fowler – “The Time Travelers”
Robin Blaser – [untitled] “It is essentially reluctance…”
George Stanley – “Orion”
Link – “Citys Would Make a Masque for Hearts”
Link – “A Poem for Ulysses”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “I hear a banging on the door…”
Robert Duncan – [untitled] “And to Her-Without-Bounds I send…”
Richard Duerden – “Hunger”
Jack Kerouac – “Blindness”
Stan Persky – “A Kingdom”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
- Cassius Clay – “I’m the King”
5. OPEN SPACE, No. 3, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, March 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 52 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Cover art and illustration by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Whan That Aprill With His Shoures Soote”
James Alexander – “Love was Here, for Simon”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Just because baseball is not poetry…”
Philip Whalen – “Technicalities for Jack Spicer”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Fifth Circle of Hell that is not Los Angeles”
Jack Spicer – “Predictions”
Jaimie MacInnes – [untitled] “Lime decayed their mouths…”
Jaimie MacInnes – [untitled] “If running stockings…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The log in the fire…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Finally the messages penetrate…”
George Stanley – [untitled] “Dear Stan…”
Robin Blaser – “2 of Image Nations”
Anselm Hollo – “Air to Dream in”
Marianne Moore – “W.S. Landor”
Stan Persky – “The Wish”
Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “The persimmons are falling…”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
Jack Spicer – “Dear Ferlinghetti”
- Stan Persky – “Whan That Aprill With His Shoures Soote”
6. OPEN SPACE, No. 4, Taurus Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, April 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 66 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer and Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Illustrations by Bill Brodecky and Tom Field
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Horns”
Robin Blaser – “Sophia Nichols”
Jess – “Critical Dream – III (trial)”
James Dickey – “The Being”
Harold Dull – “The Fire”
David Bromige – “The Accident”
E.B. [Ebbe Borregaard] – “Sketches for 13 Sonnets”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Gathered years…”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “The rectangle of heat…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Heroes eat soup like anyone else…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Smoke signals…”
Harold Dull – “The Wild Geese”
George [Stanley] – “From Seas Mainly”
Thomas M. Hannon – [untitled] “The angle iron…”
Thomas M. Hannon – “For a Friend Who is Married”
Thomas M. Hannon – [untitled] “Last night…”
Gary Snyder – “Out West”
Stan [Persky] – “Adventurer”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “A redwood forest is not invisible…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The whorship of beauty…”
Jess – [untitled] “Dear Jerry Reilly…”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
- Stan Persky – “Horns”
7. OPEN SPACE, No. 4, White Hope Issue, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, May 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 66 pages, lithography printed. Illustration by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “Where ever you go I am with you…”
E.B. [Ebbe Borregaard] – “Sketches for 13 Sonnets”
Fran Herndon – untitled illustration
Harold Dull – “Venus and the Moon Poem”
Deneen Brown – “for Bill Brodecky”
E. Poe – “Ulalume”
Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “I admit…”
George [Stanley] – “The Lyre in the East Rising”
George [Stanley] – “The Shepherds Verse”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – IV (haven)”
- Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “Where ever you go I am with you…”
8. OPEN SPACE, No. 5, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, May 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer and Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Illustrations by Fran Herndon, Nemi Frost, Tom Field, Bill Wheeler, and Graham Mackintosh.
- Contents:
- Richard Duerden – “Border: The Sun Imprisoned”
John Ashbury – “A Blessing in Disguise”
Lewis Ellingham – [untitled] “A new log had been put on the fire…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Pull down the shade of ruin, rain verse…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “If your mother’s mother had not riven, mother…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “What in sight do I have…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “It comes May and the summers renew themselves…”
Graham Mackintosh – [untitled] “Like Odysseus under the ram…”
Robert Duncan – “A New Poem, for Jack Spicer”
Helen Adam – “Farewell Stranger”
Jamie MacInnis – [untitled] “These are your nights…”
Ronnie Primack – “From a line by Spicer”
Lewis Brown – “Bartok, for Pen Lace”
anonymous – “Book of the Boss”
George [Stanley] – “Two Parts of a Poem”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Thanatos, the death-plant in the skull…”
Stan [Persky] – [untitled] “a man drawing the sword…”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
Gene Fowler – “Credo”
C.A. Swin – [untitled] “Fourth, ballad, and take roses…”
Stan Persky – “Gemini”
- Richard Duerden – “Border: The Sun Imprisoned”
9. OPEN SPACE, No. 6, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, June 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 50 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art by Helen Adam, illustrations by Armando
Navarro and Robert Berg.
- Contents:
- Stan Persky – “Orphic Space”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “1st SF home rainout since. Bounce…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The country is not very well defined…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “I squint my eyes to cry…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The metallurgical analysis of the stone that…”
George Stanley – “The Gifts of Death, after Virgil, for Louis Zukofsky”
Robin Blaser – “Image-Nations 3”
Robin Blaser – [untitled] “O-friend…”
Lewis Ellingham – “A Cold Dawn”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “It lit up…”
Wystan – “One Circumlocution”
Lewis Ellingham – “The Perfect Correspondent”
Lewis Ellingham – “The Sleepers”
Lewis Ellingham – “Underweir”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 5”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 6”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 7”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 8”
Robert Duncan – “Passages 9”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – V (ivy)”
Gael Turnbull – “A Voice, Voices, Speaking”
Gael Turnbull – “To be Shaken”
Stan Persky – “A Poem of Light and Dark, for C.S. Lewis”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
- Stan Persky – “Orphic Space”
10. OPEN SPACE, No. 7, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, July 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 82 pages, lithography printed by Lee Kummer, lettering by Peggy Engle. Cover art by Jess. Illustrations by William McNeill, Ken Botto, Fran Herndon, and Nemi Frost.
- Contents:
- L. Kearney – [untitled] “A rock…”
L. Kearney – [untitled] “A certain kind of dusk…”
L. Kearney – [untitled] “I could be wrong except for…”
Hart – “Chaplinesque”
Robert Duncan – “A Note for Open Space 7”
Robert Duncan – “The Structure of Rime XXIII”
Robert Duncan – “Shadows”
Jack Spicer – “Love Poems”
George Stanley – “Songs from Arcadia”
Joanne Elizabeth Kyger – “In July”
Joanne Kyger – [untitled] “there is no meeting…”
Helen Adam – “Sing Song”
Jess – “Critical Dreams – VI (quicksilver)”
Jim Alexander – “Alexander”
Jim Alexander – “Jacob’s Larder”
Jim Alexander – “Poem Toward a Rondel”
D.R. Drake – “3”
Harold Dull – “First Lesson”
Harold Dull – “Second Lesson”
Harold Dull – “Third Lesson”
Harold Dull – “Fourth Lesson”
Lewis Ellingham – “11, 12”
Stan Persky – “Report to the Stockholders”
- L. Kearney – [untitled] “A rock…”
11. OPEN SPACE, No. 8, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, August 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 76 pages. Cover art by Robert Berg.
- Contents:
- Michael McClure – “The Mystery of the Hunt”
L. Kearney – [untitled] “In the children’s forest…”
Robert Duncan – “A Note for Open Space 8”
Robert Duncan – “Structure of Rime XXIV”
Robert Duncan – “Chords”
Robert Duncan – “Spelling”
Robert Duncan – “At Lammas Tide”
Robert Duncan – “Saint Graal (after Verlaine)”
Charles Dodgson – [untitled] “I have a fairy by my side…”
Charles Olson – “Against Wisdom as Such”
Jamie MacInnis – “Every Little Star”
Jess – “Tricky Cad, Case IV”
Jack Spicer “Intermission I-III”
Jack Spicer – “Transformations I-III”
Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
Edna Barnes – [untitled] “If beyond passion our love…”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “I’ve listened before…”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Burden of Loveliness, 1”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Burden of Loveliness, 2”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Great Sand Dunes (for Joey)”
Stan Persky – “Muse News”
- Michael McClure – “The Mystery of the Hunt”
12. OPEN SPACE, No. 9, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, September 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5? x 11?, 92 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art by Harry Jacobus. Illustration by Jess.
- Contents:
- Harold Dull – [untitled] “He tries…”
Richard Duerden – “Iris, Cut for an Intended Painting”
Ron Loewinsohn – “The Step (a collage poem)”
Jack Spicer – “Morphemicks”
Lewis Ellingham – “Nightmare and Dream”
George Stanley – “Untitled”
Lew Brown – “Lionel”
Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “Clear face facing…”
Bill Brodecky – [untitled] “In my dream…”
Richard Duerden – “The Air”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “I tell you…”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Beyond where you…”
George Stanley – “For Bill”
Tom Field – “The Dentist”
Robert Duncan – “Parsifal: The Easter Magic”
Stan Persky – “They”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
- Harold Dull – [untitled] “He tries…”
13. OPEN SPACE, No. 10, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, October 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5? x 11?, 92 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover art and collage poem by by Jess.
- Contents:
- George Stanley – “Elpinor”
George Stanley – [untitled] “I thought of Achilles…”
Ronnie Primack – “Love Poem”
Robin Blaser – “It It It It”
M. Hannon – “Station Crossing”
M. Hannon – [untitled] “My hand goes dark…”
Jamie MacInnis – “Uncourtly Love”
Jack Spicer – “Phonemics”
Richard Duerden – “The Host, September”
Robert Duncan – “The Currents”
Ron Loewinsohn – “some more from The Step”
Harold Dull – “Day”
Harold Dull – “Night”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Now the winter burns…”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “Tell me nothing now…”
Stan Persky – “The Story”
Stan Persky – “House & Garden”
- George Stanley – “Elpinor”
14. OPEN SPACE, No. 11, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, November 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 70 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Cover photograph by Margot Prattlesome Dross.
- Contents:
- Ronnie Primack – “V”
Oscar Wilde – “The Harlot’s House”
Harris Schiff – “for Lewis Warsh”
Jack Spicer – “Graphemics”
Richard Duerden – “In the Morning”
Robert Duncan – “Moving the Moving Image”
Michael S. Willis – “A History of I and Eyes”
George Stanley – “Penelope’s Prayer”
George Stanley – “I Thought of Achilles”
George Stanley – [untitled] “The year’s ending…”
M.S.W. – [untitled] “A lover’s face…”
Lewis Ellingham – “Psyche”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “Is he an intrusion…”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “We fought…”
Deneen Brown – [untitled] “Blood colored biscuits…”
Harold H.C. – “The Broken Tower”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
- Ronnie Primack – “V”
15. OPEN SPACE, No. 12, edited by Stan Persky
San Francisco: Open Space, 1964
First edition, corner-stapled in printed and illustrated cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 90 pages, lithography printed by Mike Kummer. Illustrations by Jess and Robert Duncan.
- Contents:
- Joanne Kyger – “From Our Soundest Sleep, It Ends”
Robert Duncan – “The Torso, Passages 18”
Robert Duncan – “The Earth, Passages 19”
Robert Duncan – “Structure of Rime XXVI, Passages 20”
James Alexander – “The Greater Happiness”
Stan Persky – [untitled] “The first thing I notice…”
Robin Blaser – “The City”
Robin Blaser – “Saturn, Star of Melancholy”
Robin Blaser – “Orpheus”
Robin Blaser – “Image Nations, 4”
Jamie MacInnis – “Ducks for Grownups”
Thomas Clark – “The Site”
Harris Schiff – “(Unfinished), for Jack Spicer”
Lewis Ellingham – “O, O”
Harris Schiff – “Library Window-sill”
Lew Brown – “To Break the Day’s Contentions”
Lew Brown – “I Hear Chains”
Lew Brown – “O to Reknit this Morning”
Lew Brown – “Blackstone”
Lew Brown – “Tuig”
Harold Dull – [untitled] “When leaves like ashes fall…”
Lawrence Fagin – “from Procris & Cephalus”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “You are more constant…”
Lawrence Kearney – [untitled] “To be more tied…”
Lawrence Kearney – “For Jamie”
Ron Loewinsohn – “Some more from The Step”
Stan Persky – “Home & Garden”
- Joanne Kyger – “From Our Soundest Sleep, It Ends”
Online Resources:
Flying Object – scans of all issues
J
Jack Spicer’s J ran for eight issues: Nos. 1–5 were edited by Spicer in North Beach where contributions were left in a box marked “J” in The Place, a bar on Grant Avenue in San Francisco; Nos. 6 and 7 (an Apparition of the late J) were edited by George Stanley in San Francisco and New York City respectively while no. 8 was edited by Harold Dull in Rome. Spicer believed that poetry was for poets and the magazine had a small circulation but cast a long shadow. Contributors included: Robin Blaser, Richard Brautigan, Bruce Boyd, Kay Johnson, Robert Duncan, Joe Dunn, Ron Loewinsohn, Joanne Kyger, Helen Adam, and others. Covers (sometimes hand-embellished) were by Fran Herndon (Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5), Russell FitzGerald (No. 3), and George Stanley (Nos. 6, 7).
1. J, No. 1, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- James Alexander – “The Jack Rabbit Poem”
Ebbe Borregaard – “Ballad for S A D”
Ebbe Borregaard – “Ballad of Billy Swan”
Robin Blaser – “Two Astronomers with Notebooks”
Jack Spicer – “Hokkus”
Joe Dunn – “Love”
Richard Brautigan – “The Fever Monument”
Sam the Tenor Man – “The Radio said Giants Cinch Loop Flag”
Bois Burk – “Ode to Pierre”
Bruce Boyd – “After Midnight”
Roland March – [untitled] “Mister Brustein…”
Damon Beard – [untitled] “Adverse repercussionless…”
Kay Johnson – [untitled] “My soul is the absurdity…”
Kay Johnson – [untitled] “The door in the dream…”
Robert Duncan – “Dream Data”
Sagen – “Dear Sprach” [pseuds. Borregaard and Spicer]
Harvey Harmon – “A Soldier and His Shadow”
Tony Richards – “Summer”
- James Alexander – “The Jack Rabbit Poem”
2. J, No. 2, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 36 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- George Stanley – “Tete Rouge”
Fran Herndon – untitled illustration
Jess Collins – “I Ups to My Self And”
Harvey Harmon – [untitled] “More paths…”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “Down to new beaches…”
Robert Duncan – “Dear Carpenter”
Harvey Harmon – “A New Estate”
William Morris – “Dear Senior Poet”
Stan Persky – [untitled] “but it was a moment…”
Mary Murphy – “In-”
Will Holther – ” Lament for Otto de Fey”
Jack Spicer – “Epilog for Jim”
J.P. Shark – [untitled] “On account of changing tidal conditions…”
- George Stanley – “Tete Rouge”
3. J, No. 3, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Russell FitzGerald.
- Contents:
- Bruce Boyd – “Introduction”
Bruce Boyd – “Toward Morning”
Bruce Boyd – “War”
R.H. Blyth – “Letters to the Editor”
Rueban – “Q”
Mary Murphy – [untitled] “The skull is not the bones…”
Leo Krikorian – [untitled] “1. No drinking on duty…”
Ron Loewinsohn – “Entangling Alliances”
George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
Jack Spicer – [untitled] “The slobby sea where you float…”
Damon Beard – [untitled] “Even —…”
Jack Spicer – “Last Hokku”
JBH [James Herndon?] – [untitled] “I don’t know how many…”
- Bruce Boyd – “Introduction”
4. J, No. 4, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 36 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- Robert Duncan – “A Sequence of Poems…”
Richard Brautigan – “The Pumpkin Tide”
Richard Brautigan – “The Sidney Greenstreet Blues”
Richard Brautigan – “Surprise”
Garln – “Garln to His Friend”
Joanne Kyger – “Tapestry #3”
Josef Elias – “Joetry”
Donald Allen – “for Barbara”
John Ryan – “Pecadillo”
Jack Spicer – “Jacob”
George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
Wallace Allen Healey – “Politics”
- Robert Duncan – “A Sequence of Poems…”
5. J, No. 5, edited by Jack Spicer
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed and hand-painted cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 34 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by Fran Herndon.
- Contents:
- L. Frank Baum – “from Sky Island”
Larry Eigner – “Front”
Jess Collins – “The Poets Corner” [comic strip]
Richard Brautigan – “1942”
Mary Murphy – [untitled] “Lack of oxygen…”
D.D. – “Fishing on Saturday”
Kay Johnson – “The Space is Too Wide”
Ron Loewinsohn – “WIBC Poems”
George Stanley – “Tete Rouge (continued)”
Robert Duncan – “The Song of the River to its Shores”
Richard Duerden – “Right Now”
Sheila Roche Harmon – [untitled] “A young devil sat…”
Jack Spicer – “Fifth Elegy”
William Berryman – “On the Composition of Bones”
William R. Allen – “Letter”
- L. Frank Baum – “from Sky Island”
6. J, No. 6, edited by George Stanley
San Francisco: J, 1959
First edition, corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 38 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by George Stanley.
- Contents:
- Helen Adam – “Scenes from San Francisco’s Burning”
Paul Goodman – “I Love You, Necessary–”
Joanne Kyger – “Pan as the Son of Penelope”
Lucio Manisco – “Un Misto di Boheme Mistica e Letteraria”
William A. Berryman – [untitled] “in the after hours…”
- Helen Adam – “Scenes from San Francisco’s Burning”
7. J, No. 7, edited by George Stanley
New York: J, 1960
Corner-stapled sheets in printed cover, 8.5″ x 11″, 32 pages, mimeograph printed. Cover by George Stanley.
All contents are anonymous.
8. J, No. 8, 1961, edited by Harold Dull *
Rome: J, 1961
Contributors: Harold Dull, Stan Persky.
—
[*not in archive]
online excerpt from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side (Granary Books, 1998):
“In many ways the most beautiful of all the mimeo magazines, J had an eight-issue run. The first five issues were edited from North Beach bars by Jack Spicer with Fran Herndon as art editor. Spicer, who embodied the spirit of poetry in the Bay area, collected pieces for his magazine from a box marked “J” in The Place, a bar at 1546 Grant Avenue in San Francisco. A refugee from Los Angeles with two degrees from Berkeley, he had been a student of Josephine Miles there in the mid-1940s. They became close friends, and Spicer participated in the Friday afternoon poetry readings in Wheeler Hall during the late 1940s as well as the readings organized with Rockefeller money by Ruth Witt-Diamant at the new Poetry Center at San Francisco State. Into the cauldron of poetic politics surrounding Miles, Kenneth Rexroth, Robert Duncan, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and others, Spicer introduced his freest of spirits, sometimes more Caliban than Ariel. Spicer lived for words (even making his living as a research assistant on a lexicographical project at Berkeley). He could be found most evenings in one of the North Beach bars or coffeehouses leading the discussion on poetry, poetics, myth, linguistics, and other mysteries. Like Blake and Yeats (with the help of Mrs. Yeats), Spicer attempted to clear his mind and open himself to “dictation” from other sources, which he devotedly pursued. Spicer also believed wholeheartedly in the necessity of human beings’ helping each other through communication, which he confronted in the editorship of J, a little newsletter of the poetic spirit. Donald Allen acted as J’s distributor in New York (“New York Contributions are not forbidden. But quotaed”), selling copies for Spicer to the Wilentz brothers of the Eighth Street Book Shop. In an early letter to Spicer, Allen eagerly wondered “what your editorial policy may be. Seduction by print.””
Further Reading:
Measure
“The three simple, almost starkly working-class issues of Measure followed glorious and overlooked “underground” poet John Wieners from Black Mountain College home to Boston, across country to San Francisco, and back to Boston again. In his years in San Francisco, from 1958 to 1960, Wieners attended (sometimes serving as host at his Scott Street apartment) the legendary Sunday afternoon poetry workshops of the charismatic poets Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer. Also present at the workshops were George Stanley, Harold Dull, Robin Blaser (The Pacific Nation), and many others…”
— from A Secret Location on the Lower East Side (Granary Books, 1998)
1. MEASURE, No. 1, edited by John Wieners
Boston: Measure, Summer 1957
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 48 pages, letterpress printed at the Press of Villiers Publications.
“Measure is edited by John Wieners. It will be issued with the four seasons only through your support… Please understand that the opinions expressed in this magazine do not necessarily reflect those of the city.”
- Contents:
- Tom Balas – “Le Fou”
Charles Olson – “Le Bonheur!”
Charles Olson – “The Charge”
Charles Olson – “Spring”
Edward Marshall – “One:”
Edward Marshall – “Two:”
Robin Blaser – “Poem”
Robin Blaser – “Letters to Freud”
Robin Blaser – “Poem by the Charles River”
Edward Dorn – “The Rick of Green Wood”
Larry Eigner – “Millionem”
Larry Eigner – “Brink”
Frank O’Hara – “Section 9 from Second Avenue”
Fielding Dawson – “Two Drawings”
Stephen Jonas – “Word on Measure”
Stephen Jonas – “Expanded Word on Measure”
Michael Rumaker – “Father”
Gavin Douglas – “The Blanket”
Jack Spicer – “Song for Bird and Myself”
Jonathan Williams – “Two Poems for Whitman, the Husbandman”
Robert Duncan – “The Propositions”
- Tom Balas – “Le Fou”
2. MEASURE, No. 2, edited by John Wieners
San Francisco: Measure, Winter 1958
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 64 pages, letterpress printed at the Press of Villiers Publications.
“Magick is for the ones who ball, i.e. throw across”
- Contents:
- Michael Rumaker – “The Use of the Unconscious”
Robin Blaser – “The Hunger of Sound”
Robert Creeley – “Juggler’s Thot”
Michael Rumaker – “8 Dreams”
Jack Kerouac – “4 Choruses”
Charles Olson – “Descensus Spiritus No. 1”
Robert Duncan – “The Maiden”
Robert Creeley – “They Say”
Robert Creeley – “She Went to Say”
Jack Kerouac – “235th Chorus”
Edward Dorn – “Notes from the Fields”
Robert Duncan – “The Dance”
Stuart Z. Perkoff – “Feats of Death, Feasts of Love”
V. R. Lang – “The Recidivists”
Gregory Corso – “Yaaaah”
James Broughton – “Feathers or Lead”
Michael McClure – “The Magazine Cover”
Michael McClure – “One & Two”
Robert Creeley – “The Tunnel”
Robert Creeley – “Just Friends”
Richard Duerden – “Musica No. 3”
Stephen Jonas – “Books 3 & 4 from a Long Poem”
- Michael Rumaker – “The Use of the Unconscious”
3. MEASURE, No. 3, edited by John Wieners
Milton: Measure, Winter 1962
First edition, saddle-stapled in printed wrappers, 5.5″ x 8.5″, 36 pages, letterpress printed at the Press of Villiers Publications.
“THE CITY / 1 AM – Unreasonable fear, of the shadows of Harry Lime, of the dead reappearing”
- Contents:
- James Schuyler – “Shed Market”
James Schuyler – “Joint”
Gerrit Lansing – “Explorers”
Barbara Guest – “Safe Flights”
Barbara Guest – [untitled] “Once when he was a small boy…”
Barbara Guest – “Abruptly, as if a Forest Might Say”
Helen Adam – “Anaid si Taerg (Great is Diana)”
Madeline Gleason – “Wind Said, Marry”
Robert Duncan – “What do I Know of the Old Lore?”
Jack Spicer – “Central Park West”
Larry Eigner – “Poem”
Tom Field – [untitled] “Form is never more than the extension…”
Edward Marshall – “Times Square”
Edward Marshall – “2”
Edward Marshall – “3”
John Wieners – “The Imperatrice”
Philip Lamantia – “Opus Magnum”
Sheri Martinelli – “Ruth Gildenberg”
Michael Rumaker – “The River at Night”
Charles Olson – “The Year is a Great Circle…”
Charles Olson – “The Post Virginal”
Charles Olson – [untitled] “Descartes, age 34…”
John Haines – “Poem”
John Haines – “Pawnee Dust”
- James Schuyler – “Shed Market”