Ring of Bone: Collected Poems, 1950-1971

by Lew Welch

Lew Welch was a brilliant and troubled poet, legendary among his Beat peers. Ring of Bone collects poems, songs, and even a few drawings, documenting the full sweep of his creative output, from his early years until just before his death.

Welch entered Reed College in 1948, and the following year moved into a house with Gary Snyder; they were soon joined by Philip Whalen. With the emergence of the Beat movement, Welch's friends began receiving national attention and his desire to devote himself completely to his poetry was galvanized. He soon became a part of the San Francisco poetry scene.

Legendary editor Donald Allen included Welch's poetry in The New American Poetry—the seminal anthology published in 1960. That same year Welch's first book, Wobbly Rock, was released. He continued to write extensively, and in 1965 published three books. Despite his burgeoning success, Welch suffered from bouts with depression, and on May 23, 1971, Gary Snyder went up to Welch's campsite in the Sierra Nevada mountains and found a suicide note. Despite an extensive search, Welch's body was never recovered.

"Lew Welch writes lyrical poems of clarity, humor, and dark probings . . . jazz musical phrasings of American speech is one of Welch's clearest contributions." —Gary Snyder

"...Music permeates his poems, which range from scored lyrics to epistolary correspondence to formal villanelles... It's fascinating to trace the evolution of this artist, from his early, lax, exultant style to his later, less jubilant work, characterized by benedictions, invocations, and requests. This is a necessary read for anyone interested in the greater Beat movement and its progenitors." —Booklist

"His luminous poems feel as vibrant today as when they first burst from the wellsprings of creativity in his own head... A postmodern Walt Whitman. . ." —San Francisco Chronicle

Genres: Poetry, Buddhism, American

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Lewis Barrett Welch, Jr. is an American poet associated with the Beat generation of poets, artists, and iconoclasts.

According to Aram Saroyan who wrote Genesis Angels: The Saga of Lew Welch and the Beat Generation, Welch decided to become a writer after reading Gertrude Stein's long story "Melanctha." Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s, and taught a poetry workshop as part of the University of California Extension in San Francisco from 1965 to 1970.

On May 23, 1971, he walked out of poet Gary Snyder's house in the mountains of California, carrying his 30-30 rifle and leaving behind a suicide note. His body was never found.

Reviews

[Simon Robs · Rating 4 out of 5]

DIFFICULTY ALONG THE WAY

Seeking Perfect Total Enlightenment
is looking for a flashlight
when all you need the flashlight for
is to find your flashlight



..the following, a last stanza from poem: ["He Finally Reaches The City"]

Is this, then, the
Mystical Return? The
Man come back?

The Red Monk used to say:

find yourself at some ridiculous task,
say, urinating in the hostess's flower bed,
the party raging on, above,

and imagine all your life, and past lives,
till you see them vividly. Then,

shaking off the dew, say out loud:

So,
It has all come to this?

[AND SO, Lew, I wonder, were those your last thoughts too?]

[Eric Shaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without doubt, this is my favorite book of poetry. Lew Welch is our most undersung and excellent of ecological and environmental poets. In this volume, read "Hermit Poems" and "The Song Mt. Tamalpais Sings" for an astonishing glimpse of how good, clear, simple, direct, and effective poetry can be.

[City Lights Booksellers & Publishers]

The Rumpus
"In the poet's own words, [Ring of Bone] is a spiritual autobiography . . . Lew Welch was many things; a scholar, a father, a drunk, a laborer, an adman, a madman, a friend, and an ascetic— no better description of him exists than that which came in his own vision, deep in the wilds of the Klamath Mountains, the poem after which the collection is titled... These 40 years later, Lew, you are missed."
—Lisa Wells

Booklist
"...Music permeates his poems, which range from scored lyrics to epistolary correspondence to formal villanelles. Welch muses on things galaxial and local, trivial and most profound, in a tone somehow both deadpan and stentorian. It's fascinating to trace the evolution of this artist, from his early, lax, exultant style to his later, less jubilant work, characterized by benedictions, invocations, and requests. This is a necessary read for anyone interested in the greater Beat movement and its progenitors."
— Diego Báez

San Francisco Chronicle
"His luminous poems feel as vibrant today as when they first burst from the wellsprings of creativity in his own head... A postmodern Walt Whitman. . ."
—Jonah Raskin

[Jon]

I consider Lew Welch one of the most interesting 20C. American poets. There's a SELECTED POEMS but you've really got to read this COLLECTED POEMS, which includes key early work, to understand him. He could write a memorable poem about the beauty of a mountain in Oregon (without Gary Snyder's smarmy smugness) or about a Tenderloin bar in San Francisco (without the pointless vulgarity that typified Charles Bukowksi's poetry)....The guy was sui generis.

[Megan Parrott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled upon a reference to Lew Welch's "Chicago Poem" and I was compelled to dive in a little deeper. "Ring of Bone" is a fantastic introduction to Welch. I'm drawn to his adoration for the environment, as well as his simple, yet beautifully lyrical style. This volume includes some of his original illustrations, which is always a nice treat.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my students is writing his thesis on Welch, which caused me to get out my copy of Ring of Bone. It is well worth rereading. Some of the poems seem a little dated--some level of 60's jargon, etc.--but there are striking, lucid perceptions here and a fine sense of play and adventure.

[Hal · Rating 5 out of 5]

The collected poems (1950-1971) of San Francisco Bay area poet Lew Welch. His brilliant succinct insights cut to the bone, marrow, heart of the matter of the universe. An unacknowledged master.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Least well-known of the beats; poems are sometimes depressive and tentative.

[Rasmus Tillander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ring of Bone oli synkeä, rytmikäs mutta ei kuitenkaan raskas kokoelma yhdeltä "San Fransiscon renessanssin" kärkinimistä. Itse Ring of Bone -kokoelman lisäksi kokoelmaan on kerätty Welchin julkaisemattomia runoja.

Lew Welch oli beat-sisäpiiriin kuulunut runoilija, jonka elämä päättyi oman käden kautta vuosi ennen kuin Ring of Bone vihdoin julkaistiin. Welch kuului niihin beatseihin joille luonto oli keskeisessä osassa taiteilijuutta. Tämänkin, hieman epätasaisen kokoelman, parhaita paloja olivat "erakkorunot" ajalta jolloin Welch eli erämaamökissä. Erityisesti runo "Song of the Turkey Buzzard" on synkän kaunis kuvaus elämästä, kuolemasta ja luonnosta. Vaikka Welch jää usein Gary Snyderin varjoon, on tässäkin osittain todella hienoa lyriikkaa.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not a huge fan of beat poets, especially their agrandizing and mythologizing by others and themselves, but I tend to find their poetry bombastic and simplistic. The directness and simplicity works in Lew Welch's favour when he directs his poetry toward nature and the environment, and I enjoyed this more than oger contemporaries of his I've read, yet I still wish for more aesthetic sense of language.

[Roman Leao · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like Lew’s body of work. We have one of his poems on the wall at the Exploratorium and it really resonates (pun intended), I just couldn’t grok what the hell he was on about most of the time. His Statement of Poetics, a summation of his teaching experience at a poetry workshop at a UC Extension, was spot on. I just don’t feel that he followed his own advice all that often. You probably had to be there.

[Mark Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some of these that I annotated as I went through. There were some that portrayed a feeling that I’ve never been able to put into words.

Then there are some where he debates whether or not to shave. And there are others where he talks about how “bitches like poetry”.

All in all, it’s a mixed bag.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw myself
a ring of bone
in the clear stream
of all of it

and vowed,
always to be open to it
that all of it
might flow through

and then heard
“ring of bone” where
ring is what a

bell does

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loaned by a friend with whom I'm re-exploring the Beat Era, and on, into the troubled, hopeful, depressing, idealistic 60s/70s...

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic collection of poetry. Lew Welch is not that well known although his university buddies Snyder and Whalen are and will attest to Welch's clear talent and voice as a unique and strong poet in his own right. This collects all of his poetry more or less before that fateful day in 1971 when he left Snyder's cabin with his gun to finish it all.
Welch's body was never found but he has left behind a very strong collection of work.
His poem, 'Chicago Poem' features some great verse in which he tries to personify the massive industrial city as an immense out-of-control beast, which incidentally I have done in my own poetry on Tokyo (another monster city). Although this is one relatively large book of poetry, it is divided up into the respective individual books that were published in his lifetime such as Hermit Poems which are the poems he wrote while living as a recluse, in true Thoreau fashion, on Salmon River. My personal favourite was the collection entitled, CEMENT, towards the back of the book. Some very strong poems here. I heard Lew may have been bipolar which may explain some of his erratic behaviour, his heavy drinking and his fits of depression. I look forward to reading his letters next month to find out more. Highly recommended. When I take a break from reading, study or work, one of Lew's lines sometimes comes into my head whenever I feel like eating a snack - "maybe I'll eat a can of peaches".

[Don]

The poems in RING OF BONES, like the collected poems of all poets, are hit and miss, depending, naturally, on your taste and sensibility. However, for me, as a writer, Lew Welch's essay "Poetry as Language", at the back of the book, was in itself worth the price of the book.

[Noel Kroeplin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Lew Welch. He was probably one of the most fascinating poets of the beat generation. And there's a few poems in this book that are absolutely brilliant.

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh

[Olivia]

New edition review: http://therumpus.net/2012/08/ring-of-...

[Kent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of poems by one of my favorite Beat artists.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He viajado,
He hecho un circuito,
He vivido en 14 ciudades,
He sido una palabra en un libro,
He sido un libro originalmente..."

[Amarnath · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of all time. I think this says more about me then about the book.