My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer

CONTENTS

CONTENTS Acknowledgments ix Introduction xiii About This Edition xxvii I. (1945–1956) BERKELEY RENAISSANCE (1945–1950) Berkeley in Time of Plague 5 A Girl’s Song 5 Homosexuality 6 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Landscape 6 An Apocalypse for Three Voices 10 One Night Stand 13 An Answer to Jaime de Angulo 13 A Lecture in Practical Aesthetics 14 Dialogue Between Intellect and Passion 15 A Night in Four Parts (Second Version) 16 Orpheus in Hell 18 Orpheus After Eurydice 19 Orpheus’ Song to Apollo 20 Troy Poem 21 “We find the body difficult to speak . . .” 22 “They are selling the midnight papers . . .” 22 “Any fool can get into an ocean . . .” 23 The Scrollwork on the Casket 24 The Dancing Ape 25 Imaginary Elegies (I, II, III) 26 Psychoanalysis: An Elegy 31 Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page v Contents v MINNESOTA POEMS (1950–1952) Minneapolis: Indian Summer 37 Watching a TV Boxing Match in October 37 Portrait of an Artist 38 Sonnet for the Beginning of Winter 38 On Reading Last Year’s Love Poems 39 Orpheus in Athens 39 Train Song for Gary 40 A Second Train Song for Gary 41 BERKELEY / SAN FRANCISCO (1952–1955) A Postscript to the Berkeley Renaissance 45 A Poem for Dada Day at The Place, April 1, 1955 46 “The window is a sword . . .” 47 Imaginary Elegies (IV) 48 NEW YORK / BOSTON (1955–1956) IInd Phase of the Moon 53 IIIrd Phase of the Moon 53 IVth Phase of the Moon 54 Some Notes on Whitman for Allen Joyce 55 The Day Five Thousand Fish Died Along the Charles River 56 Hibernation—After Morris Graves 56 Éternuement 57 Song for the Great Mother 57 “The city of Boston . . .” 58 Five Words for Joe Dunn on His Twenty-Second Birthday 58 Birdland, California 60 “Imagine Lucifer . . .” 61 The Song of the Bird in the Loins 62 Babel 3 63 They Murdered You: An Elegy on the Death of Kenneth Rexroth 64 vi Contents Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page vi A Poem to the Reader of the Poem 65 Song for Bird and Myself 69 A Poem Without a Single Bird in It 73 The Unvert Manifesto and Other Papers Found in the Rare Book Room of the Boston Public Library in the Handwriting of Oliver Charming. By S. 74 II. (1956–1965) SAN FRANCISCO (1956–1965) Poetry as Magic Workshop Questionnaire 99 AFTER LORCA 105 ADMONITIONS 155 A BOOK OF MUSIC 169 Socrates 179 A Poem for Dada Day at The Place, April 1, 1958 180 BILLY THE KID 183 For Steve Jonas Who Is in Jail for Defrauding a Book Club 192 FIFTEEN FALSE PROPOSITIONS AGAINST GOD 193 LETTERS TO JAMES ALEXANDER 203 APOLLO SENDS SEVEN NURSERY RHYMES TO JAMES ALEXANDER 217 A BIRTHDAY POEM FOR JIM (AND JAMES) ALEXANDER 223 Imaginary Elegies (V , VI) 230 “Dignity is a part of a man . . .” 233 HELEN: A REVISION 235 THE HEADS OF THE TOWN UP TO THE AETHER 247 LAMENT FOR THE MAKERS 315 A RED WHEELBARROW 323 Three Marxist Essays 328 THE HOLY GRAIL 329 GOLEM 359 Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page vii Contents vii MAP POEMS 365 LANGUAGE 371 BOOK OF MAGAZINE VERSE 403 Chronology 429 Notes to the Poems 437 Bibliography 455 Index of Titles 457 Index of First Lines 461 viii Contents Spicer: My Vocabulary Did This to Me page viii ...