Voyce - 2017;2013;

POETIC COMMUNITY

STEPHEN VOYCE

University of Toronto Press 2013

Toronto Buffalo London

www.utppublishing.com

Printed in Canada

ISBN 978-1-4426-4524-0 (cloth)

Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Voyce, Stephen, 1978
Poetic community : avant-garde activism and Cold War culture / Stephen Voyce.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4426-4524-0

1. Poetics History 20th century. 2. Literary movements History 20th century. 3. Cold War Influence. 4. Poetry Social aspects. 5. Community activists. I. Title.

PN1081.V69 2013 809.19358 C2012-906889-6

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities.

for Shannon and Justin

Several colleagues and friends deserve my sincerest gratitude for their probing insights, generosity, and inspiration. I reserve special thanks for my mentor and friend Marcus Boon, who provided invaluable guidance and enthusiastic encouragement; Irene Gammel, for her discerning commentary and generosity; Lesley Higgins and Arthur Redding, for their commitment and support; and for my dear friend and collaborator Shannon Meek, with whom I spent many nights plotting this book. I would also like to offer my gratitude to Richard Ratzlaff, Barbara Porter, Charles Stuart, and the reviewers at the University of Toronto Press for their thoughtful analysis and editorial rigour.

Thanks also to my colleagues, friends, and family for their unwavering support: Nathan Brown, Andrew Griffin, Suzanne Zelazo, James Papoutsis, Pierre Joris, Robert Stacey, Alana Wilcox, Angela Rawlings, Melinda Mortillaro, Jed Rasula, Jason Demers, Christian Bk, Dee Morris, Jon Winet, Nicki Saylor, Greg Prickman, Peter Balestrieri, Garrett Stewart, Blaine Greteman, Jennifer Wolfe, Adam Hooks, Jennifer Buckley, Loren Glass, Derek Flack, Lori Emerson, Barbara Godard, Steve McCaffery, John Wrighton, Chris Nealon, Joshua Clover, Juliana Spahr and the 95 Cent Skool, the staff at the Victory Caf, Justin Voyce, David Voyce, May Voyce, and Linda Pashak. I greatly acknowledge the helpful librarians and staff members at the Modern Literature and Culture Research Centre, the Getty Research Institute, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, the George Padmore Institute, Simon Fraser Library Special Collections, the Charles Olson Research Collection at the University of Connecticut, the Digital Studio for the Public Humanities, and the University of Iowa Special Collections.

appear in Open Letter 13, no. 8 (Spring 2009) and 14, no. 7 (Fall 2011).

The author and publisher greatly acknowledge permission to reprint material from the following sources:

Kamau Brathwaite, The Arrivants by Brathwaite (1973), ninety-three lines from Ananse, Caliban, Cane, The Cracked Mother, Eating the Dead, Jah, Jouvert, Legba, Negus, Ogun, Veve, pp. 1623, 1657, 1745, 184, 192, 2212, 2423, 2646, 26970. By permission of Oxford University Press; Kamau Brathwaite, Interview with Edward Kamau Brathwaite (by Anne Walmsley). Papers of the Caribbean Artists Movement, 6/9. Courtesy of the George Padmore Institute; Jo Carrillo, And When You Leave, Take Your Pictures With You. Reprinted by permission of the author; Robert Creeley, Song (Were I Myself), The Memory, Hart Crane, The Immoral Proposition, The Conspiracy, For Rainer Gerhardt, from The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 19451975, by Robert Creeley, 1982 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of California Press; Judy Grahn, The Common Woman Poems and She Who continues, from Love Belongs to Those Who Do the Feeling: New and Selected Poems, 19662006. Reprinted by permission of Red Hen Press; Dick Higgins, Letters to Steve McCaffery, dated 14 July 1976 and 13 April 1979, Dick Higgins Papers, Getty Research Institute, courtesy of Hannah Higgins and Jessica Higgins; John La Rose, Fantasy in Space and Connecting Link, from Foundations; Prosepoem for a Conference, from Eyelets of Truth Within Me. Reprinted with permission by Sarah White and New Beacons Books; John La Rose, Interview with John La Rose (by Anne Walmsley). Papers of the Caribbean Artists Movement, 6/44. Courtesy of the George Padmore Institute; Philip Larkin, This Be the Verse, from Collected Poems by Philip Larkin. Copyright 1988, 2003 by the Estate of Philip Larkin. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC for U.S. rights. Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber, Ltd., for World excluding U.S. rights; Denise Levertov, from To Stay Alive, copyright 1971 by Denise Levertov. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp.; Steve McCaffery, The Body: In Light, An Afterthought, and Seasons, Reprinted by permission of the author; The Letter a According to Chomsky, Kommunist Manifesto: Wot We Wukkerz Want, and A Translation of Sir Philip Sidneys Sonnet XXXI from Astrophel and Stella, from Seven Pages Missing. Reprinted by permission of the author and Coach House Books; Honor Moore, Polemic #1. Copyright 1975 by Honor Moore, used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC; Robin Morgan, Pass the Word, Sister. Reprinted by permission of the author; bpNichol, Bilingual Poem and Seasons. Reprinted by permission of Eleanor Nichol; Charles Olson, Culture and Revolution, 29: 1522, Prose No. 45, Typescript, Charles Olson Research Collection. Archives & Special Collections at the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut Libraries; Charles Olson, The Maximus Poems, by Charles Olson, 1983 by the Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of California Press; Sylvia Plath, Daddy, from Ariel. Copyright 1963 by Ted Hughes. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers for U.S. rights; Reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber, Ltd., for World excluding U.S. rights; Adrienne Rich, lines from A Walk by the Charles. Copyright 1993, 1955 by Adrienne Rich; lines from November 1968. Copyright 1971 by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc, from Collected Early Poems: 19501970 by Adrienne Rich. Used by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.; Ben Shahn, A Glyph for Charles, Art Estate of Ben Shahn/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.

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