In this Book
- My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer
- Book
- 2012
- Published by: Wesleyan University Press
- Series: Wesleyan Poetry Program
Winner of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Award for Poetry (2009)
Winner of the American Book Award (2009)
In 1965, when the poet Jack Spicer died at the age of forty, he left behind a trunkful of papers and manuscripts and a few copies of the seven small books he had seen to press. A West Coast poet, his influence spanned the national literary scene of the 1950s and '60s, though in many ways Spicer's innovative writing ran counter to that of his contemporaries in the New York School and the West Coast Beat movement. Now, more than forty years later, Spicer's voice is more compelling, insistent, and timely than ever. During his short but prolific life, Spicer troubled the concepts of translation, voice, and the act of poetic composition itself. My Vocabulary Did This to Me is a landmark publication of this essential poet's life work, and includes poems that have become increasingly hard to find and many published here for the first time.
Table of Contents
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- pp. ix-xi
- INTRODUCTION
- pp. xiii-xxv
- ABOUT THIS EDITION
- pp. xxvii-xxxi
- I. (1945–1956)
- pp. 1-94
- BERKELEY RENAISSANCE (1945–1950)
- pp. 3-33
- A GIRL’S SONG
- p. 5
- HOMOSEXUALITY
- p. 6
- AN APOCALYPSE FOR THREE VOICES
- pp. 10-12
- ONE NIGHT STAND
- p. 13
- A LECTURE IN PRACTICAL AESTHETICS
- pp. 14-15
- ORPHEUS IN HELL
- p. 18
- THE SCROLLWORK ON THE CASKET
- pp. 24-25
- THE DANCING APE
- p. 25
- IMAGINARY ELEGIES
- pp. 26-30
- PSYCHOANALYSIS: AN ELEGY
- pp. 31-33
- MINNESOTA POEMS (1950–1952)
- pp. 35-41
- SONNET FOR THE BEGINNING OF WINTER
- pp. 38-39
- ORPHEUS IN ATHENS
- pp. 39-40
- TRAIN SONG FOR GARY
- p. 40
- BERKELEY / SAN FRANCISCO (1952–1955)
- pp. 43-49
- IMAGINARY ELEGIES
- pp. 48-49
- NEW YORK / BOSTON (1955–1956)
- pp. 51-94
- IIIrd PHASE OF THE MOON
- pp. 53-54
- HIBERNATION—AFTER MORRIS GRAVES
- pp. 56-57
- ÉTERNUEMENT
- p. 57
- SONG FOR THE GREAT MOTHER
- pp. 57-58
- BIRDLAND, CALIFORNIA
- pp. 60-61
- “Imagine Lucifer . . .”
- pp. 61-62
- THE SONG OF THE BIRD IN THE LOINS
- pp. 62-63
- A POEM TO THE READER OF THE POEM
- pp. 65-68
- SONG FOR BIRD AND MYSELF
- pp. 69-72
- II. (1956–1965)
- p. 95
- SAN FRANCISCO (1956–1965)
- “POETRY AS MAGIC” WORKSHOP
- pp. 99-104
- AFTER LORCA (1957)
- pp. 105-154
- ADMONITIONS (1957)
- pp. 155-168
- A BOOK OF MUSIC (1958)
- pp. 169-178
- BILLY THE KID (1958)
- pp. 183-191
- LETTERS TO JAMES ALEXANDER (1958–1959)
- pp. 203-216
- IMAGINARY ELEGIES
- pp. 230-232
- “Dignity is a part of a man . . .”
- pp. 233-234
- HELEN: A REVISION (1960)
- pp. 235-245
- LAMENT FOR THE MAKERS (1961)
- pp. 315-322
- A RED WHEELBARROW (1962)
- pp. 323-327
- THREE MARXIST ESSAYS
- p. 328
- THE HOLY GRAIL (1962)
- pp. 329-358
- GOLEM (1962)
- pp. 359-364
- MAP POEMS (1963–1964)
- pp. 365-369
- LANGUAGE (1963–1965)
- pp. 371-402
- BOOK OF MAGAZINE VERSE (1965)
- pp. 403-427
- CHRONOLOGY
- pp. 429-435
- NOTES TO THE POEMS
- pp. 437-453
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- pp. 455-456
- INDEX OF TITLES
- pp. 457-460
- INDEX OF FIRST LINES
- pp. 461-465