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Doubleheader: Hurrah for Anything / Poemscapes & A Letter to God
Kenneth Patchen
- GenresPoetry
117 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
About the author
Kenneth Patchen
164 books130 followersKenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. He experimented with different forms of writing and incorporated painting, drawing, and jazz music into his works, which have been compared with those of William Blake and Walt Whitman. Patchen's biographer wrote that he "developed in his fabulous fables, love poems, and picture poems a deep yet modern mythology that conveys a sense of compassionate wonder amidst the world's violence." Along with his friend and peer Kenneth Rexroth, he was a central influence on the San Francisco Renaissance and the Beat Generation.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 21, 2022
Kenneth Patchen constantly reimagines what language can do and it’s very whimsical and it’s very serious and it makes me happy to be alive and to be reading.
January 7, 2018
Два переизданных перевертышем сборника.
«Ура всему» — это маленькие сюрреалистические зарисовки, то ли подписи к картинкам, то ли наоборот, картинки к подписям, не всегда понятно, что было раньше и было ли. Совершенно гениально.
«Поэзошафт» (ну или «Поэмозаж») — тут не стоит делать ошибку и считать его «сборником стихотворений в прозе»: на самом деле это единое высказывание с достаточно связным сюжетом, который, правда, с ходу не считывается, до того дробна и причудлива там система образов.
Завершается все это «Письмом Богу» — вполне пылкой разборкой на ту же тему, что обычно у Пэтчена.
«Ура всему» — это маленькие сюрреалистические зарисовки, то ли подписи к картинкам, то ли наоборот, картинки к подписям, не всегда понятно, что было раньше и было ли. Совершенно гениально.
«Поэзошафт» (ну или «Поэмозаж») — тут не стоит делать ошибку и считать его «сборником стихотворений в прозе»: на самом деле это единое высказывание с достаточно связным сюжетом, который, правда, с ходу не считывается, до того дробна и причудлива там система образов.
Завершается все это «Письмом Богу» — вполне пылкой разборкой на ту же тему, что обычно у Пэтчена.
March 30, 2008
he has been with me for so long i forget sometimes how he sweetened my heart while raging and pleading for us to cease our self-destructive folly, and how he modeled the potential of words and letters as graphic elements.
this doubleheader is the fastest road to the heart of his heart. as with the truest voices, i am always growing into him.
this doubleheader is the fastest road to the heart of his heart. as with the truest voices, i am always growing into him.
November 3, 2026
I was browsing the poetry section of a local used bookstore when I came across this collection. Doubleheader, Hurrah For Anything and Poemscapes by Kenneth Patchen. I was drawn to this 1958 New Directions paperback for the fact of how unique a presentation it is. A “two for one” collection with two different front covers. Finish one poetry collection and flip it over to read the other. Far from the first time I’ve seen something like this I will say this is one of the more unique presentations of a New Directions book I’ve read.
When I took this copy home and started looking into Kenneth Patchen I was surprised that I wasn’t already familiar. A generation older than many of my favorites of the Beat and San Francisco Renaissance movements, Patchen was an influence on many of those California poets of the 1960s and 1970s. Reading this collection you immediately get the sense that he was pivotal in formulating that stylistic voice.
I started my reading experience of this doubleheader with Hurrah For Anything. A collection of poems that all stand at one page each. Accompanied by individual drawings that Patchen produced, this collection was a great introduction. You get a sense for Patchen’s humor and creativity. You get a healthy dose of surrealism and absurdity. What truly is impressive is how much emotion and sincerity you get juxtaposed with the absurdity in such brief statements. I really enjoyed this collection and could clearly see the influence on authors such as Richard Brautigan.
The second collection I read, Poemscapes, is a collection of 168 brief statements all sharing a selection of different themes. These statements only are about a sentence to a paragraph long. Personally, I felt like the brevity didn’t work as well here as too little was given to the reader to grasp onto before moving on to the next one. There were a handful of these poems I liked but overall I was pretty indifferent. The collection ends with a single long poem titled A Letter To God. An interesting digestion on thoughts of personal relationship with a higher being the most interesting aspect to me was just to showcase the range in which Patchen was capable of. The poem itself wasn’t the most engaging but I could appreciate just how different this was to the other works in this collection.
Overall, I was really impressed by this collection. While the second half didn’t make as much of an impact as the first I was overall really impressed with Patchen and can’t wait to read more.
When I took this copy home and started looking into Kenneth Patchen I was surprised that I wasn’t already familiar. A generation older than many of my favorites of the Beat and San Francisco Renaissance movements, Patchen was an influence on many of those California poets of the 1960s and 1970s. Reading this collection you immediately get the sense that he was pivotal in formulating that stylistic voice.
I started my reading experience of this doubleheader with Hurrah For Anything. A collection of poems that all stand at one page each. Accompanied by individual drawings that Patchen produced, this collection was a great introduction. You get a sense for Patchen’s humor and creativity. You get a healthy dose of surrealism and absurdity. What truly is impressive is how much emotion and sincerity you get juxtaposed with the absurdity in such brief statements. I really enjoyed this collection and could clearly see the influence on authors such as Richard Brautigan.
The second collection I read, Poemscapes, is a collection of 168 brief statements all sharing a selection of different themes. These statements only are about a sentence to a paragraph long. Personally, I felt like the brevity didn’t work as well here as too little was given to the reader to grasp onto before moving on to the next one. There were a handful of these poems I liked but overall I was pretty indifferent. The collection ends with a single long poem titled A Letter To God. An interesting digestion on thoughts of personal relationship with a higher being the most interesting aspect to me was just to showcase the range in which Patchen was capable of. The poem itself wasn’t the most engaging but I could appreciate just how different this was to the other works in this collection.
Overall, I was really impressed by this collection. While the second half didn’t make as much of an impact as the first I was overall really impressed with Patchen and can’t wait to read more.
December 14, 2017
Some very nice stuff here.
July 16, 2015
Well, that was pretty boring. Perhaps back in the 50s and 60s I thought that nonsense verse and ugly scribbles were avant garde. If so, I was wrong.
November 21, 2015
He gets a little bit too into his nonsensical tall tale mode in this book and that stuff goes over my head, but still, when he hits he really hits and he does plenty of that in this book.
November 7, 2012
Beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews