Selected Poems: Stephen Jonas

by Stephen Jonas

Poetry. "Stephen Jonas is part of a mythic Boston poetry gang headed by John Wieners, comrades of Charles Olson, fellow New Englander. His gay verse pioneered and prophesied later "Fag Rag" decades in Puritan Boston. A true poet of modern classic culture in mid-twentieth century U.S. A." -Allen Ginsberg.

Genres: Poetry

250 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Derek Fenner · Rating 5 out of 5]

The scholarship and editing our dynamite. But since it is out of print I reread it in order to co-edit Arcana: Stephen Jonas Reader for City Lights (April 2019)

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a hard one to rate. Many, probably the majority, of these poems are 5 Star at the very least. Exercises for Ear is still a wonder to me when I read it. The first time I read it, it inspired a couple of months of writing Jonas imitations, and some of what I learned has stuck with me. He is the best of the poets to come out of the "Boston Renaissance" (Wieners, Spicer, Blaser, Jonas, et al).

This is a book I go back to often.

[Inverted · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to stop reading it midway because I was seriously getting pissed off. He had the beat going, sure, and he drew a lot of material from a rich array of resources, but his turns of phrase and imagery were barely there. The Exercises for Ear were interesting enough to get me through the first half of the book, but afterwards it was a fast plunge. It was just one pretentious verse after another.