In this Book
The University of Akron Press
- A Poet Drives a Truck: Poems by and about Lowell A. Levant
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: The University of Akron Press
- Series: Akron Series in Poetry
summary
Lowell A. Levant had the twin vocations of poet and truck driver. He rose to prominence in Berkeley in the 60’s as a member of the Artists, Musicians, Poets, and Sympathizers Local of the I.W.W., whose work was collected in Poems Read in the Spirit of Peace and Gladness. Readers will notice four main qualities of his poems. First, as observed by his mentor, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder, there is “… the complex depth of his writing about work, machinery, trucks, equipment, repair, maintenance—all in a deceptively slightly befuddled voice that masks the surprising competence of what's being actually done.” Second, there is attunement with nature, characteristic of “Deep Ecology” poetry. Third, there is music, which he also created when he played a Jew’s harp, sang, or strummed his guitar. Finally, Lowell’s poetry often took the form of the unfiltered, unfettered, free-associative declarations of the Beat Poets of his time, particularly those of Allen Ginsberg, whom Lowell admired.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Table of Contents
- pp. 5-8
- Introduction
- pp. 11-16
- Poems Read at the Berkeley Poetry Conference 1965
- Strawberry Canyon
- p. 20
- To a Mouse I Dreamed I Killed
- pp. 21-22
- Poems from Poems Read in the Spirit of Peace and Gladness (1966)
- Peace and Gladness
- pp. 25-27
- For a Woodsey Friend
- p. 28
- The Harvest
- p. 32
- Hold Things Full
- p. 32
- Poems Read and Published in Various Sources in the 1960s and Early 1970s
- Gliding Quilt
- p. 35
- From Bancroft Library Archives (University of California, Berkeley)
- New-born Spiders
- p. 43
- Racing / Forgetting
- p. 44
- The Bearing Links: Collection Submitted for the Joseph Henry Jackson Award (1978)
- Rig-Pa-Med-Pa
- p. 49
- The Spoken Wheel
- pp. 51-53
- The Escape
- p. 57
- Silver Moccasin
- pp. 60-62
- Poems from Coyote Run:, Poems by Will Staple, Gene Anderson, Lowell Levant (1978)
- Stump-Top Doctoring
- p. 67
- Mary’s Flat
- pp. 68-69
- Truck-Stop
- p. 70
- Plush Wind Nectars
- pp. 73-74
- Grouse Ridge Idyll
- p. 74
- Butte Creek
- pp. 75-76
- Compost Heap
- p. 77
- Careless Love Canyon
- p. 77
- Transmission Linkage
- pp. 80-86
- Unpublished Work of Lowell A. Levant
- Maha-Mudra:
- p. 91
- The Sweetness
- p. 92
- In Gentle Lust
- p. 93
- If you don’t know, Why do you Ask?
- pp. 96-97
- Why am I so?
- p. 98
- Winter Work
- p. 99
- A Poet Drives a Truck
- p. 101
- Ode to my Father
- pp. 102-103
- A Visit near Bald Peak
- p. 104
- Untitled Poems
- I’ve ranged over meadows
- p. 108
- The rap is the folding over of the bubbling
- pp. 111-113
- I don’t know whether I’ll ever become
- pp. 114-115
- The primary prayer of the Jewish people
- pp. 119-120
- Poems about Lowell A. Levant
- Strawberry Canyon Poem
- pp. 125-126
- We Might Say Poetry
- p. 127
- The Eye / circles, and seeks
- pp. 128-132
- Lowell’s Dream
- p. 133
- Sierra Buttes ‘87
- p. 133
- Polar Bear Head #1
- p. 134
- Nov 17 Sutra: nanao speaking to lowell & me
- pp. 135-136
- Bristlecone Pine
- pp. 137-139
- A Trucker Named Lowell
- p. 140
- To Lowell Levant
- p. 141
- For Lowell
- p. 142
- Desert in Fall
- p. 143
- What's left of you
- p. 145
- Your Addiction
- p. 146
- for Lowell
- pp. 147-148
Additional Information
ISBN
9781629220130
Related ISBN(s)
9780615864457
MARC Record
OCLC
899262149
Pages
147
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No