Poetry. This fascicle is #4 in the twenty-eight chapter epic collaboration based upon A Plan for a Curriculum of the Soul by Charles Olson under the general editorship of John Clarke. ONE'S OWN MIND is the penultimate volume of the project which began in 1971 with #21, VISION by Drummond Hadley and which includes works by Duncan McNaughton, Anselm Hollo, Joanne Kyger, Michael McClure, Ed Sanders, Alice Notley, Robert Duncan, James Koller, Robin Blaser and many others. About ONE'S OWN MIND Peter Quatermain writes: A real accomplishment, if that's at all a meaningful word. It really IS a conversation, and the reader -- or at least this one -- really does talk back, confirm, wonder, think, bog off and read, talk back some more. Speak of stepping out, yes, and if you put it in mind then the mind steps out. If what ONE'S OWN MIND does is privilege the reader, then I'm all for this kind of privilege.
Born and raised in Riverside, California Michael Boughn moved to Canada in October, 1966 to escape the U.S. military draft and to continue organizing against the Viet Nam War. He lived in Vancouver for 7 years. While there he met Robin Blaser who introduced him to the work of William Blake, Charles Olson, H.D., Jack Spicer, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams and other crucial contemporary writers. In 1971 he left university in order to organize full time. Over the next several years he worked in various jobs, eventually becoming a Teamster in Toronto where he was a freight handler on the lakefront for 7 years. From 1982-89 he pursued graduate studies at SUNY Buffalo, where he studied with John Clarke and Robert Creeley and worked in the Poetry/Rare Book Collection. He completed his PhD, producing the first descriptive bibliography of the poet, H.D., and worked as a writer, typesetter, and publication designer, founding shuffaloff books. In 1993 he returned to Canada where he has lived since, teaching part-time at the University of Toronto, publishing non-fiction for young adults and children, and helping write and produce plays for Toronto’s Clay & Paper Theatre. In 2001 swore allegiance to the Queen and her heirs and became a Canadian citizen. He currently lives in Toronto with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two children, Amelia and Sam.