Two-Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook

by David Meltzer

First printing in wrappers, issued simultaneously with hardcover. Frontispiece drawing of the author by Amanda Rose Meltzer. Poetry and prose-poems, plus notes on the text sources. 149 pp.

Genres: Poetry

149 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

David Meltzer was a poet associated with both the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance. A pioneer of jazz poetry readings, Meltzer also formed a psychedelic folk-rock group. He performed with the music and poetry review, "Rockpile." He edited many anthologies, including San Francisco Beat: Talking with the Poets (City Lights, 2001), and published 11 erotic novels. He taught for many years in the poetics program at New College of California.

Reviews

[Swell Versed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this book by chance at my local library, and I just had to read it, because I love David Meltzer's poem/book "When I Was A Poet". In a way, this is a longer, manifesto-type version of that poem, as it is a vast collection of snippets of the author's thoughts on the craft of poetry, combined with snippets of other authors' thoughts on the same. I like some of the entries more than others, but in general I appreciated the work he put in to compiling all of these different snippets into one book. My favorite sections are the ones re: the musical aspects of poetry and especially how poetry is similar to and also different from song, such as "Poetry is speech that attempts to be song".

[ronny · Rating 4 out of 5]

poetry as ars poetica.

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an easy favorite. Playful, meandering, and exploratory, Meltzer uses a variety of lyrical essays, prose poems, free verse, and quotations in a thesis about what poetry is, how sounds works, the spiritual meanings of language, and other wisdoms about creativity and writing.