An eclectic periodical, published coincident with Tom Clark’s Fulbright study and posting as Instructor in American Poetry at the University of Essex. The titles varied but each was denoted “A One Shot Magazine… No Copyright No Nothin.”
Once Series
Tag Archives: Joanne Kyger
Once Series
Edited by Tom Clark, the Once Series is an eclectic periodical, published coincident with Clark’s Fulbright study and posting as Instructor in American Poetry at the University of Essex. The titles varied (all words concluding with ‘CE’) but each was denoted “A One Shot Magazine… No Copyright No Nothin.”
According to Tom Clark: “When I went on from Cambridge to the U. of Essex in 1965 I began editing a mimeograph magazine of my own, the Once series, and through that project got into long-distance postal contact with many younger American poets, particularly those living on the Lower East Side of New York…
“The magazines had deliberately uncataloguable titles: Once, Twice, Thrice, Thrice and a Half, Frice, Vice, Ice, Nice, Slice, Slice Vol. 1, No. 2, and Spice. I filled up the mimeo series with the spillover of poems I was receiving for the Paris Review — which could handle only a fraction of the good new work that was coming in to me — as well as with some ‘assignments’ from friends far and near…
“Joe’s series of covers, a throwaway tour de force of periodical art, lent class, consistency and uniformity to the Once series, bringing a surprising illusion of orderly design to an otherwise rather undisciplined and chaotic enterprise.
“Most of the works I published in the Once series were somewhat or in some way more outlandish or strange than what I could cull for the Paris Review.”
- Excerpt from Kevin Ring interview with Tom Clark published as Jacket 21 in Jacket Magazine, 2003.
1. ONCE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 14 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.
- Contents:
- Robin Blaser – “Psyche”
Robin Blaser – “Sophia Nichols”
Steve Jonas – “Ode for Garcia Lorca”
Ed Dorn – “A Provisional Fragment, Congested with 3 Titles”
Ron Padgett – “Poem after Reverdy”
Ron Padgett – “Light in the Nineteenth Century”
Aram Saroyan – “The Sentence”
Max Finstein – [untitled] “You, sonofabitch love you…”
Edward van Aelstyn – [untitled] “In the morning night…”
Edward van Aelstyn – “Poem Ending with ‘George Orwell’”
Phyllis Harris – “The Giant One Legged…”
Philip Lamantia – “Without Props”
Sam Abrams – “The 1st Day”
Allan Kaplan – “Billy and Franz”
Gerry Gilbert – “The Stakes”
Tom Raworth – “Not Under Holly or Green Boughs”
Tom Raworth – “She Sd, Bread, Fred”
Tom Raworth – “The Third Retainer”
- Robin Blaser – “Psyche”
2. TWICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 7 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.
- Contents:
- Robert Howell – “from Ten Great Poetry Readings: VI”
Ron Padgett – “On Ten Fingers” [translation of following Reverdy poem]
Pierre Reverdy – “Sur Les Dix Doigts”
- Robert Howell – “from Ten Great Poetry Readings: VI”
3. THRICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, March 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 25 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.
- Contents:
- Max Jacob – “from Le Cornet à Des” (translated by Ron Padgett)
F.J. Lauria – “Crazyface”
Joanne Kyger – “This is Water Sons”
Joanne Kyger – “The Sky Vault. Its Own Legend”
Joanne Kyger – “Dear, Dearest”
Aram Saroyan – “Poem” [“I seldom remember what…”]
Ted Berrigan – “February Air”
Ted Berrigan – “From a Life for Teresa Mitchell”
Ted Berrigan – “Epithalamium for Bernie Mitchell”
Ed Dorn – “Box Score”
Pamela Millward – “17 November 1965”
Larry Fagin – [untitled] “Which way is it you want me…”
Gael Turnbull – “Song”
Gael Turnbull – “An Intent”
Gael Turnbull – “A Good Man”
Richard Kolmar – “Aristophanes”
Charles Olson – “Maximus to Gloucester, Letter 27”
Gerry Gilbert – “Living at Claude & Ardie’s”
Gerry Gilbert – “Bicycle”
Gerry Gilbert – “Train”
E.A. McGregor-Plarr – “An Ode”
Clark Coolidge – “Noon Print”
Clark Coolidge – “In Land Trip Machine”
Clark Coolidge – “The Beings There, Not There, House”
Clark Coolidge – “Scrub Brush, in Lansing Michigan”
Clark Coolidge – “More Group Slab Reach”
Clark Coolidge – “Hall Crawl & Tuba Ode”
Thomas Clark – “Change”
Thomas Clark – “Doors”
Thomas Clark – “The Archer”
Thomas Clark – “You”
Thomas Clark – “You (II)”
Thomas Clark – “You (III)”
Thomas Clark – “You (IV)”
Aram Saroyan – “Letter to the Village Voice”
Thomas Clark – “You (V)”
Harold Dull – “The Dice”
Harold Dull – “The Door Poem”
- Max Jacob – “from Le Cornet à Des” (translated by Ron Padgett)
4. THRICE AND A HALF: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 2 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.
- Contents:
- Tom Pickard – “The Bodies are Touching”
Tom Pickard – “Daylight Hours”
Tom Pickard – “Forbidden Birth”
- Tom Pickard – “The Bodies are Touching”
5. FRICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, April 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 24 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Fielding Dawson – “Hernando’s Hideaway”
Fielding Dawson – “Oblivion Calling for Philip Guston”
Michael Benedikt – “Fraudulent Days”
Michael Benedikt – “Developments”
Michael Benedikt – “Mr. Rainman”
Michael Benedikt – “Bedouin Tents”
Allen Ginsberg – “Portland Aug. 27, 1965”
Aram Saroyan – “Signs”
Max Jacob – “Christmas Story” (translated by Ron Padgett)
Max Jacob – “The Key” (translated by Ron Padgett)
Max Jacob – “Adventure Story” (translated by Ron Padgett)
Max Jacob – “Valiant Warrior on Foreign Soil” (translated by Ron Padgett)
Ron Padgett – “Talking Neutrality”
Ron Padgett – “Words to Joe Ceravolo”
Larry Fagin – “Occasional Poem”
Lee Harwood – “Summer”
Tristan Tzara – “Volt” (translated by Lee Harwood)
Tristan Tzara – “The Jugglers” (translated by Lee Harwood)
Philippe Soupault – “2 Songs” (translated by Lee Harwood)
John Perreault – “The Americans”
John Perreault – “Punishment”
John Perreault – “Renaissance”
John Perreault – “These Trains”
Guillaume Appollinaire – “The Chaste Lise” (translated by Thomas Clark)
Edward van Aelstyn – “Information Explosion”
Gertrude Stein – “Shakespeare”
Ted Berrigan – “Living with Chris for Chris Gallup”
Ted Berrigan – “A Dream”
Ted Berrigan – “Poem for Ed Sanders”
Steve Carey – “Sand”
Ted Berrigan – “A Personal Memoir of Tulsa, Oklahoma”
Ted Berrigan – “After Breakfast”
Ted Berrigan – “American Express”
Robert Desnos – “Take Off Your Clothes” (translated by Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett)
Max Earnst – “Poem” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
Guillaume Apollinaire – “Epigram” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
Ted Berrigan – “Selflessness”
Thomas Clark – “Telephone Poem”
Thomas Clark – “Afternoons”
Thomas Clark – “Poem” (“You dream things…”)
Thomas Clark – “The Last Poem”
Hart Crane – “Chaplinesque”
Thomas Clark – “Michelin Poem”
- Fielding Dawson – “Hernando’s Hideaway”
6. VICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 27 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Ed Sanders – “The Fugs”
Gregory Corso – “But Surely Yahweh’s Not Dead?”
Gregory Corso – “O Mighty Tug”
Gregory Corso – “In Honor of Those the Negroes are Revolting Against”
Gregory Corso – “Not This”
Larry Eigner – [untitled] “Entering and going out…”
Andres Segovia – [untitled] “True it is…”
Ron Padgett – “Joe Brainard’s Painting ‘Bingo’”
Joe Brainard, Ron and Patricia Padgett – “An Interview with Joe Brainard”
Blaise Cendrars – “Ten Poems” (translated by Ron Padgett)
Fielding Dawson – “Two Reviews” (reviews of recent Kyger and O’Hara books)
Ron Padgett – “Reading Reverdy”
David Shapiro – “From a May Night”
Ted Berrigan – “from Clearing the Range, Charter 25”
Thomas Clark – “from Cluttering the Ranch, Chapter 90”
Thomas Clark – “Clavier”
Joe Pinelli – “from Striations, The Season’s Change”
Michel Couturier – “Maison-Dieu” (translated by Lee Harwood)
Lee Harwood – “The Tractors are Waiting (for Larry Fagin)”
Aram Saroyan – [untitled] “Gradually money…”
James Brodey – “Vice, 1966”
Thomas Clark – “from Cluttering the Ranch, Chapter 2”
George Tysh – “Plus”
Joe Perreault – “Vice”
- Ed Sanders – “The Fugs”
7. ICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 20 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed.
- Contents:
- Ted Berrigan – “Blueprint for a Poem to be Written…”
E.A. McGregor-Plarr – “Two Serious Ladies”
Allen Ginsberg – “Amsterdam Avenue Bar”
Joanne Kyger – “May 29”
Bernadette Mayer – “Earthworks”
Harlan Dangerfield – “Der Geisterseher”
Joe Pinelli – “from Striations:The Season’s Change”
Robert Howell – “Poem” [“Such deep failure…]
Robert Howell – [untitled] “Recently I was struck…”
Ted Berrigan and Bernadette Mayer – “I am Davis”
Tom Clark – “Martha’s Millions”
Tom Clark – “What I’m Trying to Say”
Tom Clark – “To Himself”
Fielding Dawson – “Some History”
Diane di Prima – “Song for the Spring Equinox”
Robert Howell – “I Dream I Suppose Indefinitely of Yourself”
David Shapiro – “For Chagy”
Richard Kolmar – “Part of an Elegy”
Richard Kolmar – “Love Letter I Forgot to Mail”
Richard Kolmar – “The Intoxicating Thing”
Doreen – “Humans”
Jack Kerouac – “from Visions of Cody”
Aram Saroyan – “Guarantee”
Edward Kissam – “Shards, Pottery”
Ted Berrigan – “A Cranny of Life”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Contemporary Lights”
Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett – “Uncas”
Ted Berrigan, Ron Padgett, Tom Veitch, and Dick Gallup – “In the Foundry”
- Ted Berrigan – “Blueprint for a Poem to be Written…”
8. NICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 20 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Joe Brainard – “Life”
Charles Goldman – “Smoke Dance”
John Perreault – “Memorandum”
John Perreault – “Elbow”
Aram Saroyan – “Quote”
Aram Saroyan – “from Songs & Buttons”
Richard Brautigan – “The Armored Car”
Tom Clark – “Hitching”
Tom Clark – “from The Riot at the Garrick Theatre”
Lee Harwood – “His July Return”
Clark Coolidge – “Soda Gong”
Clark Coolidge – “Cellary”
Harry Fainlight – “Exercise 1”
Harry Fainlight – “Spider Eclipse”
Harry Fainlight – “Laws”
Harry Fainlight – “H”
Frank O’Hara – “Ode to Willem de Kooning”
David Shapiro – “For Chagy”
Harry Fainlight – “The Gates of Albion”
Dick Gallup – “An Idea that Reaches the Moon”
Peter Schjeldahl and Ted Berrigan – “Juking”
Peter Schjeldahl and Ted Berrigan – “Pictures from Breughel”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Soft Letter”
Ted Berrigan – [untitled] “Before the orgasmic platform…”
- Joe Brainard – “Life”
9. SLICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1966
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 26 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Dick Gallup – “Death and the Maiden”
Dick Gallup – “The Georgics”
Dick Gallup – “The Bingo: Act III”
Bruce Maddox – “The Engagement Ring Cycle”
Joe Ceravolo – “Surface”
Joe Ceravolo – “Leaped at the Caribou”
Joe Ceravolo – “In the Grass”
Joe Ceravolo – “Stars of the Trees and Ponds”
Lewis MacAdams – “The Dazzling Day”
Lewis MacAdams – “The Witch”
Joe Ceravolo – “Stillness”
Jack Collom – “Count K. in the Wind”
Steve Carey – “Something of Nothing”
Steve Carey – “Silhouette”
James Brodey – “Someplace/Utah”
Thomas Clark – “Spectacles”
Thomas Clark – “The Fire-Dance”
Thomas Clark – “Mudball Gathering”
Thomas Clark – “The Trial”
Thomas Clark – “Baseball”
Thomas Clark – “Pancakes”
David Shapiro – “Poem” [Light became audible…”
David Shapiro – “Any Plant that Turns Toward the Sun”
David Shapiro – “For Son II”
Ted Berrigan – “Corporal Pellegrini”
Max Jacob – “Genre Biographique” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
Max Jacob – “The War” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
Max Jacob – “The Enemy of the Citadel” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
Max Jacob – “Symbolic Egyptienne” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
Guillaume Apollinaire – “A Poem” (translated by Ted Berrigan)
Ron Padgett and Ted Berrigan – “from A Little Anthology of Modern Verse”
Ed Dorn – “2nd Quarter”
Sotere Torregian – “Lionine, An Elegy”
Sotere Torregian – “In the Year of Reredos”
Sotere Torregian – “The Museum of Famous People”
Aram Saroyan – “Two Poems”
Sotere Torregian – “from The Uncollected Poems of John Wesley Hardin”
LeRoi Jones – “Labor and Management”
Tom Raworth – “The Circle”
Sotere Torregian – “Fire on Leon Blum”
Peter Schjeldahl – “Gauge”
- Dick Gallup – “Death and the Maiden”
10. SLICE: A One Shot Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 2, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1967
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 7 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Fielding Dawson – “Spring Sequence”
Bernadette Mayer – “The Earmark”
Michael McClure – “Dream Table”
- Fielding Dawson – “Spring Sequence”
11. SPICE, edited by Tom Clark
Brightlingsea: Tom Clark, 1967
First edition, side-stapled in illustrated cover, 8″ x 13″, 24 leaves printed recto only, mimeograph printed. Cover art by Joe Brainard.
- Contents:
- Ted Berrigan – “Looking for Chris, Part I”
Anne Waldman -”After the Circus”
Ron Padgett – “A Katz”
Ron Padgett – “Injured Nancy”
Steve Carey – “P.M.”
David Shapiro – “The Divine Comedy”
John Giorno – [untitled] “A former janitor…”
John Giorno – [untitled] “Seven Cuban army officers…”
Robert Avid – “The Sooner the Better”
Ed Dorn – “An Idle Visitation”
Ed Dorn – “A Notation on the Evening of November 27, 1966”
Lewis MacAdams – “Red River, in Memory of Frank O’Hara”
Lewis Warsh – “All the Earmarks of a Plan”
Larry Fagin – [untitled] “Well known is the long parade…”
Alan Kaplan – “Through New Jersey, via the Greyhound”
Tom Veitch – “You’ve Got a Point There, Pop”
Lewis MacAdams – “Turn Out the Lining on your All-Time Great Men”
Michael Brownstein – “Highway 31”
Kathleen Fraser – “Letters: To Barbara”
Tony Towle – “Fable”
Tony Towle – “Poem” [“The bus stops…”]
Ted Berrigan – “The N.Y. Jets, a movie”
Jon Cott – “The House”
Tom Clark – “The Ted Berrigan Story”
Ted Berrigan – “The Tom Clark Story”
- Ted Berrigan – “Looking for Chris, Part I”
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: