Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems - Paperback

by Michael McClure (Author), Leslie Scalapino (Introduction by)

This essential collection of Michael McClure's poetry contains the most original, radical, and visionary work of a major poet who has been garnering acclaim and generating controversy for more than fifty years. Ranging from A Fist Full, published in 1957, through Swirls in Asphalt, a new poem sequence, Of Indigo and Saffron is both an excellent introduction to this unique American voice and an impressive selection from McClure's landmark volumes for those already familiar with his boldly inventive work. One of the five poets who heralded the Beat movement in the 1955 Six Gallery reading in San Francisco, McClure reveals in his poetry a close kinship to Romanticism, Modernism, Surrealism, and Japanese haiku. These poems--grounded in imagination and a profound regard for the natural world--chart a poetic landscape of utter originality.

Front Jacket

Michael McClure shares a place with the great William Blake, with the visionary Shelley, and with the passionate D.H. Lawrence.--Robert Creeley

Without McClure's roar there would have been no sixties.--Dennis Hopper

Michael McClure's poetry and prose is one of the more remarkable achievements in recent American literature.--Times Literary Supplement

McClure's poetry is a blob of protoplasmic energy.--Allen Ginsberg

Back Jacket

Michael McClure shares a place with the great William Blake, with the visionary Shelley, and with the passionate D.H. Lawrence.--Robert Creeley

"Without McClure's roar there would have been no sixties."--Dennis Hopper

"Michael McClure's poetry and prose is one of the more remarkable achievements in recent American literature."--Times Literary Supplement

"McClure's poetry is a blob of protoplasmic energy."--Allen Ginsberg

Author Biography

Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. He has collaborated with prominent artists, poets, and musicians, including Allen Ginsberg, Jim Morrison, and Terry Riley. McClure's journalism has been featured in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Chronicle, and he has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Obie Award. His books of poetry include Mysteriosos and Other Poems, Huge Dreams, and Rain Mirror.

Leslie Scalapino (1944-2010) taught at Mills College in Oakland and at Bard College in New York State. Among her many books are It's go in horizontal: Selected Poems, 1974-2006 (UC Press); Day Ocean State of Star's Night: Poems and Writings, 1989 and 1999-2006, and Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows.