Table of Contents

PREFACE

MEPHISTOS
MEPHISTO 1
MEPHISTO 2
MEPHISTO 3
MEPHISTO 4
MEPHISTO 5
MEPHISTO 6
MEPHISTO 7
MEPHISTO 8
MEPHISTO 9
MEPHISTO 10
MEPHISTO 11
MEPHISTO 12
MEPHISTO 13
MEPHISTO 14
MEPHISTO 15
MEPHISTO 16
MEPHISTO 17
MEPHISTO 18
MEPHISTO 19
MEPHISTO 20
MEPHISTO 21
MEPHISTO 22
MEPHISTO 23
MEPHISTO 24
MEPHISTO 25
MEPHISTO 26
MEPHISTO 27
MEPHISTO 28
MEPHISTO 29
MEPHISTO 30
MEPHISTO 31
MEPHISTO 32
MEPHISTO 33
MEPHISTO 34
MEPHISTO 35
MEPHISTO 36
MEPHISTO 37

SOME FRINGES
THE MYSTERY OF THE HUNT
(MY / MOSS / HEAD)
(MY FACE IS)
(NEW MOON ((BLACK!)))
(gut-)
(THE HAPPY / WHITE DOG)
(SKY MEAT)
(WAVE BOOMS)
(WET / BEACH ROCK)
(I AM THE FIRELIGHT)
(REFINED AS A WILD / BLACKBERRY)
(WHITE CHRYSANTHEMUM)
(— YULE LOG SHINING)
(DRESSED)
(GOBBETS OF FOAM RUSH)
(DARKNESS —)
(In sun)
(HAIKU-LIKE)
(for Gary)
(GRAY SILVERFISH BLUR)
(THIS TINY, CURLED)
(FEATHER-SCATTER BOUQUET)
(THE WING-FACE OF THE LITTLE)
(IN SUMMER SOLSTICE)
(DEEP IN THE PINK FLOWER’S)
(LOVELY ELONGATED LOPING)
(BULGING HUMMINGBIRD EYES)
(MID-AIR — THE SILVER-GREEN)
(THE NEARBY LEMON BLOSSOM)
(RAGGED WINGED YOUNG BUTTERFLY)
(FREE AS A TIGER TABBY)
(SOMETIMES THE CAT PURRING)
(PERFECT BLACK SHADOWS)

ROSE BREATHS
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

BEING
THUMBPRINT
SESTINA FOR MY LOVER
UNDERTOW
SKAAGI THE SALMON
MOUNT TAMALPAIS
POLLOCK’S ECHO
ANACREON’S CUPID
ANACREON MEETING CUPID
SMALL ODE ON THE NEED TO DRINK
A BLUE ROSE
EPITHALAMION
FOR TOM
NARCISSUS WAKING UP
ALL CHILDREN
INTIMATE JOURNALS
WET BLACK ROCK
WATER IN WATER
FRANK AND VIVIANA
THE JUDITH POEM
COLOR FIELD

SONG HEAVY

Promotional Information

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About the Author

Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, and novelist. After moving from Kansas to San Francisco as a young man, he was one of the five poets who participated in the legendary 1955 Six Gallery reading that featured the public debut of Allen Ginsberg's landmark poem Howl. McClure remains a key figure of the Beat Generation and is immortalized as Pat McLear in Jack Kerouac's novel Big Sur. A central figure in the Beat Movement and the San Francisco Renaissance, his poetry is heavily infused with an awareness of nature, especially in the animal consciousness that often lies dormant in mankind. He has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Obie Award for Best Play, an NEA grant, the Alfred Jarry Award and a Rockefeller grant for playwriting. McClure is still active as a poet, essayist and playwright and lives with his second wife, Amy, in the San Francisco Bay Area. McClure continues to reach new audiences through his poetry, plays, and performance.

Reviews

"McClure's observations and most importantly his feelings about the universe are uncannily explicit, palpable in their expression. A reading of one or two poems brings you deeper into a sense of being, an exquisite immediacy to everything in you and above you and around you that is so sudden in its effect it's almost startling.”— Tillala Chronicles