Selected Poems

by Kenneth Rexroth, Bradford Morrow (Editor)

Rexroth's Selected Poems brings together in a single volume a representative sampling of sixty years work. The late Kenneth Rexroth ( 1905-1982) is surely one of the most readable of this century's great American poets. He is also one of the most sophisticated.

Genres: Poetry

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Kenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist.

He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.

Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic themes and forms.

Rexroth died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6, 1982. He had spent his final years translating Japanese and Chinese women poets, as well as promoting the work of female poets in America and overseas.

Reviews

[Edita · Rating 5 out of 5]

The wind walks slowly away from the storm;
Veers on the wooded crests; sounds
In the valleys. Here we are isolate,
One with the other; and beyond
This orchard lies isolation,
The isolation of all the world.
Never let anything intrude
On the isolation of this day,
[…]
Do not speak. My face sinks
In the clotted summer of your hair.
The sound of the bees stops.
Stillness falls like a cloud.
Be still. Let your body fall away
Into the awe filled silence
Of the fulfilled summer—
Back, back, infinitely away—
Our lips weak, faint with stillness.
[…]
And it is as though I held
In my arms the bird filled
Evening sky of summer
*
We could not hear beyond the heart.
We could not see the moving dark
And light, the stars that stood or moved,
The stars that fell. Did they all fall
We had not known. We were falling
Like meteors, dark through black cold
Toward each other, and then compact,
Blazing through air into the earth.
*
Memory echoes and reechoes
Always reinforcing itself.
*
In the moon drenched night the floating
Bridge of dreams breaks off

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 4 out of 5]

3 3/4 stars

[James Henderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenneth Rexroth was a poet, translator and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was one of the major influences on the Beat generation, and was once dubbed "Father of the Beats" by Time. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic forms such as haiku.
His first volume In What Hour appeared in 1940, in which spiritual tranquility and moral anguish appeared together like testaments to both the beauties of the cosmos and the horrors of human history. Many of his early poems employ the language of direct statement, the straightforward, if heightened, conversational speech of an unselfconscious first person, that of a man who would later claim to “have spent my life striving to write the way I talk”. Readily accessible, it was to become Rexroth’s characteristic poetic voice.
In What Hour was followed by a regular succession of volumes, and in 1952 The Dragon and the Unicorn, a book-length philosophical poem, with a narrative spine provided by his travels around Europe. As a result of this substantial body of published work, by the 1950s he was widely known and admired as a leading figure in the emerging alternative culture, whose effective capital was San Francisco. There he was something of a father-figure to the many younger poets and writers who had emerged from, or converged upon the city over the previous decade, among them Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gary Snyder, and Allen Ginsberg. He presided over their gatherings, participated in their readings, sometimes to jazz accompaniment, and boosted their work over his weekly radio book review program. His poetry, presented here in a generous selection, has always been among my favorites in large part due to the "accessible voice".

[Matthew Davidson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really don't know how to classify or describe Rexroth's poetry. Some of it is, like William Blake's, deliberately child-like and superbly witty and ironic (i.e. "A BESTIARY"). Some of it is epistolic (such as his "Letter to William Carlos Williams" – whom he admired greatly). And much of it reflects nature – and there are some love poems in this book as well.

He was also not enamored with much of what is loosely termed, "Western Civilization." Apparently he was good at translating Chinese verse, although none of it is included in this volume.

I can only say that I admire his word choice (diction) and the musical flow of the language and can recommend this book to anyone who appreciates a sensitive look at what's around them.

[Christopher · Rating 2 out of 5]

The most worthwhile part of this selection of Kenneth Rexroth’s poems is arguably the introduction by editor Bradford Morrow. Its biographical sketch of the American poet (who lived 1905–1982) describes a young man that read voraciously, hitchhiked the length of the US and sailed to Europe and South America, then settled in San Francisco where he was in close connection with the political and artistic currents of the day. But the actual poems themselves weren’t anywhere near as interesting.

This selection, published two years after Rexroth’s death, draws on nearly five decades of work. The early poems are quite erudite, replete with allusions to classical learning and aware of the innovations of the Modernists (Eliot, Pound, Joyce). Eventually, however, Rexroth settled into a more conversational style with a fairly restricted vocabulary. The main concerns of the mature poet are nature and erotic love.

Rexroth was seen as a sort of forerunner of the Beats. Certainly in his interest in California’s forests and mountains and in Eastern religions he feels like a forerunner of Gary Snyder. Yet the most striking poem in this connection is “Thou Shalt Not Kill”, an enumeration of bohemians and the tragedies that befell them, which anticipates Ginsberg’s “Howl” so much that Ginsberg's achievement looks downright imitative.

Otherwise, not a single poem in this volume gripped me. Rexroth’s meter is too free, the enjambment arbitrary even for someone comfortable with free verse. The erotic poetry is execrable. All in al, Rexroth’s work reminds me strongly of that of Kenneth Patchen (who turns out to have been a friend), and the two together are securely down at the bottom of the list of poets I have ever read.

[Madeleine]

- “the idealistic, brilliant, and rather unbalanced protagonist”
- Poet’s responsibility to society
- he attended universities but was “‘a consummate master in the art of plausible hooky’”
- see: A Living Pearl
- Paris, Buenos Aires
- one of the pioneers of performance poetry in that he read in clubs to the accompaniment of jazz
- his poem Floating that can be compared to a Calder mobile .. opening lines of Delia each seven syllables “California rolls into / Sleepy summer, and the air / Is full of the bitter sweet/ Smoke of grass fires burning/ On the San Francisco hills.”
- poem Delia Rexroth - died June, 1916 - “watches history fill the deserts”
- from The Dragon and the Unicorn (1952).. II intellectual, physical, saying that only way we can reach other modes is through sensual world, sense, touch
.....

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing of Rexroth save the scowly expression that looked back at me from the cover of this book for 30 years. You cannot judge a book by its cover; he is not the man I imagined at all. His love poems were numerous and quite good. His camping poems even more numerous and with a wide range of subject matter run the gamut from excellent to meh. His political diatribes often seem like rants, but then he does have a powerful, lifelong obsession with politics.

My previous sentences give a false impression. Good, bad, failure, love, nature, politics: it's all here. And the student of poetry can learn an enormous amount by reading this volume. I did. His work prompted numerous notes, and I probably began half a dozen poems triggered by items that I read here. This is a poet that should be on your reading list!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did a report on Rexroth for my St. Ed's class. He wrote some great stuff--he was a little older than most of the Beats, but no less angry or frustrated with the state of things. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and "From 'A Beastiary'" are a couple of his best, and two of my favorites. I also like the one about the Spanish Civil War--powerful stuff--soldiers watching their enemies get bombed, and all that.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this thin volume slowly after purchasing it at City Lights in San Francisco, savoring a poem or two at a time, enjoying Rexroth's imagery and allusions like perfectly seasoned snacks.

I was more familiar with Rexroth's translations than his original work. This sampling makes me want to go much deeper into his work.

[Jeff]

great poet; learned but lyrical

[Vmillerstumpf · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous, sensual, rich poetry from one of this past century's greats.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

birthday gift from booth :)

[Thomas Voiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Send new sneakers

[Primordial Offering · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the men i think i love.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Signature of All Things". One of the most beautiful and relevant poems I've ever read!