THE COLLECTED POEMS OF

PHILIP WH ALE NE D I T E D BY C H A E L R O T H E N B E R G

WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESSM I D D L E T O W N , C O N N E C T I C U T

CONTENTS

Editor's Note and Acknowledgments xxv

Foreword, Highest and Driest:For Philip Zenshin's Poetic Drama/Dharma, Gary Snyder xxvii

Language as Transient Act,The Poetry of Philip Whalen, Leslie Scalapino xxxi

IV 1VIII 1XVIII 2

Three Desert Poems 2The Great American Desert 2Saguaro 3New Canaan 3

from The Temptation of St. Anthony 3

The Plaster Muse : 6 Poems in the Classic Mode 9I. Moshe Sur l'Eau 9II. Ode 9III. Leda 10IV. Thursday in Byzantium 1 0V. "A l'Ombre Des Jeunes Filles . . ." 11VI. Sonnet for Valentine's Day 11

Advent 12"A Country Without Ruins" 1 2

Contents / v

In the Palace of the Heart 1 3Invocation to the Muse 13November First 14An Elegy Upon the Untimely Death of Mrs. W. F. 15The Road-Runner 16Three Ormolu Pieces for Stanley Moore 16Song 17Apostrophe to a Borrowed Tiger 1 8The Sealion 1 8Theory 19"Of Course," She Said 20Three Satires 21The Engineer 22The Great Instauration 23The Rose Festival Parade 26Meta 27"The Shock of Recognition" 28Two Miracles 28The Five Queens 30Homage to Lucretius 31A N ew Voyage 3 2Scholiast 33Out of It 33Tell Me More 34"Plus Qa Change . . ." 34Martyrdom of Two Pagans 36If You're So Smart, Why Ain't You Rich? 37Sourdough Mountain Lookout 40from Three Variations, All About Love 46Sauced 49Unfinished, 3:xii:55 50Denunciation, or, Unfrock'd Again 51Homage to Robert Creeley 52Invocation & Dark Sayings, in the Tibetan Style 53The Slop Barrel: Slices of Paideuma for All Sentient Beings 56Small Tantric Sermon 62Further Notice 63

vi / Contents

I Give Up 64The First Day of November 65Esprit d'Escalier Rant, Directed at Dr. P.'s class in

English 106-B 66The Same Old Jazz 67Anchor Steam Beer, for Michael McClure 69Souffle 70Takeout, 15:^:57 75ForC. 76A Dim View of Berkeley in the Spring 7 7Literary Life in the Golden West 79Take # 4, i5:viii:57 80Against the Magic War: An Open Letter to Robert Duncan 83Harangue from Newport, to John Wieners, 2i:ix:57 85io:x:57, 45 Years Since the Fall of the Ch'ing Dynasty 87Apedeath 88In Memory of a Statesman 88LETTER, to Mme. E. T. S., 2*58 89For My Father 92"While the Patient Slept" 92Translation of a Lost Play by M. M. 93Senseless Commentaries on Chao-Chou 94Sincerity Shot 95Metaphysical Insomnia Jazz. Mumonkan xxix. 96Letter to Charles Olson 97Unsuccessful Spring Poem 101Corvallis Down the Road 101Trying Too Hard to Write a Poem Sitting on the Beach 1022o:vii:58, On Which I Renounce the Notion of

Social Responsibility 1 03Newport North-Window View 104From an Envelope Addressed to Charles Olson 105Hymnus Ad Patrem Sinensis 105Complaint: To the Muse 106Prose Take-Out, Portland i3:ix:58 1 07Self-Portrait Sad 22^:58 108I Think of Mountains 113

Contents / vii

Fond Farewell to the Chicago Review 114From a Letter to Ron Loewinsohn, 19.xi.-58 1 15Delights of Winter at the Shore 1 16Something Nice About Myself 11 9[The end, of a month of Sundays] 1 20Motion Day 1 21a very complicated way of saying "appearances deceive"? 1 224:2:59 Take 1 1 23Self-Portrait, from Another Direction 1 24I Return to San Francisco 127Take, 25:01:59 132A Reply 1 33For a Picture by Mike Nathan 1 33A Distraction Fit 1 34With Compliments to E .r H. 135[Awake a moment. . . ] 1 39I Am King Giant Dragon Sun 1 39Poem for a Blonde Lady 1 41"Everywhere I Wander" 142Haiku for Mike 142A Reflection on My Own Times 143Address to the Boobus, with her Hieratic Formulas in reply 143Boobus Hierophante, Her Incantations 145Song for 2 Balalaikas on the Corner of 3rd & Market 146To the Moon 147All About Art & Life 147Temporarily Insane 1 52Farewell! 152Since You Ask Me 153New York City 154To a Poet 155An Irregular Ode 156Haiku, for Gary Snyder 156Warnings, Responses, Etc. 157Goodbye & Hello, Again 1 59[Take dandelions first salad.] 161[March 3, i960, A Beautiful Page] 162

viii / Contents

Palace Cafe 163A Vision of the Bodhisattvas 1 63Itchy 164Dream 166Essex Was a Cowboy in Vermont 1 66Movie Night 167Historical Disquisitions 168Short Explanation of Everything 1 71[Requiescat] 172[Try doing a small thing well. ] 173Address to a Younger Generation 1 74Dream & Excursus, Arlington Massachusetts 1 75The Death of Boston 176For Albert Saijo 178[Government] 179Homage to Rodin 1 79Staying or Going 1 85The Treasures of Rage 1 86Real San Francisco Sunday Afternoon 1 87San Francisco Sunday Morning Palimpsest 1 88To Ruth 1 89Duerden Says: "Life is Therapy" 1 90Philippic, Against Whitehead and a Friend 1 93Twin Peaks 196[under/beneath] 197Caption for a Picture 198Life and Art 1 98[Red Rover] 199The Daydream 200Ignorantaccio 200[Driving immediately past] 201[hoist great blocks of language into place] 202That One 203[I have eaten] 204Monday in the Evening 205Vector Analysis 228[Coca-cola chairs] 229

Contents / ix

[" . . . my FBI, my peace, my war"] 230Saturday Morning 231[B.C.] 231Early Autumn in Upper Noe Valley 232Easy Living 233The Poor 234The Revolutionaries 234One of My Favorite Songs Is Stormy Weather 237Friendship Greetings 238Statement of Condition 238The Idol 239The Chariot 240The Admonitions 241To the Muse 243The Prophecy 244[Monday early before bedtime] 245[Lamp] 246[Very Early Monday] 247[Tender] 248There It Goes 249Saturday i5:ix:62 249A Short History of the Second Millennium B.C. 250Fillmore Hob Nob Carburetor 251The Art of Literature 251The Art of Literature, 2nd part 252The Art of Literature, #3, A Total Explanation 252The Art of Literature, Part 4th 253The Art of Literature, Concluded 254[Hum] 255[a community temple] 255[Albert's Antarctica] 256Minor Moralia 257Applegravy 270Sunday Afternoon Dinner Fung Loy Restaurant ,

San Francisco 25:xi:62 271The Saturday Visitations 272Song to Begin Rohatsu 273

x / Contents

The Gallery, Mill Valley 274Heigh-Ho, Nobody's at Home 274Hello to All the Folks Back Home 275[(Economy] 276The Professor Comes to Call 277The Coordinates 277[a major communication] 278[Worse than ever . . . ] 279Spring Musick 280How We Live the More Abundant Life in America 280Spring Poem to the Memory of

Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928) 282[careful & empty] 284[More light seems to fall] 285Re-Take 2O:xii:63 from 7:^:63 286Letter, to Michael McClure, ii:iii:63 287For B rother Antoninus 291Night and Morning Michaelangelo 292How Beautiful 292PW His Recantation 293[Someplace, Neb.] 294Three Mornings 295World Out of Control 296Life and Death and a Letter to My Mother Beyond

Them Both 297[Expansion] 302[Obsessions] 303Plums, Metaphysics, an Investigation, a Visit, and a

Short Funeral Ode 304[The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra] 309["Chooky"] 310[One Page Poem] 311Friday Already Half- 312Tennis Shoes 314Epigram 315To the Muse 316Where Was I 318

Contents / xi

Oh Yes. Vancouver. 318Vancouver 318Golden Gate Park 319That Dream 319Mysteries of 1961 320Breughel: "The Fall of Icarus" 2O:ix:63 321[My karma has to do with ears] 322[Octopus] 323Raging Desire &c. 324Social Graces 324Mystery Poem, for a birthday present 325The Fourth of October, 1963 326Song 326Illness 327[For John Lee Hooker] 328[The shape of it] 329Somebody Else's Aesthetic 330Gradus ad Parnassum 330Inside Stuff 331Roxie Powell 331Native Speech 331[aches and pains] 332[Crown Fruit] 333[Treasures, left panel] 334[Treasures, right panel] 335St. Francis Lobbies Allen G. 336To a Nervous Man 336The Double Take 337Homage to WBY 338Salamander 338A Recall 339Native Speech 339The Walkers' Patio: Giant Plant 340How Was Your Trip to L.A.? 341Whistler's Mother 341Last Part of an Illustrated Children's

Book in a Fever Dream 342

xii / Contents

Some Kind of Theory 344Winter Jelly 345Theophany 345[Native // Folk Speech] 346[Native // Folk Speech with doodles] 347[Epiphany] 347Papyrus Catalogue 348A Botanical Phrenzy 350Clean Song 350The Great Beyond Denver 350Technicalities for Jack Spicer 351[March 1964] 354Corinthian Columns 355Mexico 355Chagrin 356Composition 356The Lotus Sutra, Naturalized 357A Mistake 357Early Spring 357The Mystery 358The Problem 358[Hope for the best] 359Invocation and Theophany 359The Metaphysical Town Hall and Bookshop 363The Ode to Music 363[Time Poem] 367Absolute Realty Co.: Two Views 368I5:v:64 369[The End of the line] 371[Nasturtium] 371Trinity Sunday 1964 372Tommy's Birthday 372[air and earth combine] 373Late Afternoon 373Magical Incantation 374Goddess 374Buck Rogers 375

Contents / xiii

The Chain of Lakes 375Dying Again 377To My Muse 384True Confessions 384The Best of It 384EAMD 393[Groundhog Day] 394The Season 395[Futility] 396[The Great American Boob, Lecture Notes] 397[Lecture Notes, GSS Berkeley] 398[Lecture Notes—II—G.S.S. Berkeley] 399Bleakness, Farewell 400[skoolie-bau] 406Homage to William Seward Burroughs 407Fragment of Great Beauty & Stillness 409The India Print Bedspread 409[Dear Mr. President,] 41 0Grand Historical Ode 410Priapic Hymn 411Doukhobor Proverb 41 2"Merry Meet; Merry Part" 41 3Disgust with an Poetickal Evening at Miss Q's House 41 3Japanese Tea Garden Golden Gate Park in Spring 414"A Penny for the Old Guy" 415Fragment of a Letter, Unsent 41 6Art & Music 416Mahayana 417My Songs Induce Prophetic Dreams 41 8April Showers Bring Rain? 438Love Love Love Again 439A Morning Walk 440Message Before Aram Awakes 441"The Sun Rises and Sets in That Child," 442The Second Day of May 1965 443"California Is Odious but Indispensable" 444Imagination of the Taj Mahal 444

xiv / Contents

T/0 445"The Great Heidelberg Tun" 446[Nasturtium shadows] 447Sleepy 448A Satire 448Card #21 Le Monde 449[Strange?] 450

1935 451The Feather Truth Weighs 10,000 Pounds 451M 452The Life of Literature 453What Finally Happened to the King 453[Lightning of the sky] 455[This is my life] 456America! 457The Education Continues Along 457Giant Sequoias 469Pop Doughnut 469Secret 470That Eyes! Those Nose! 470The First of August 471The Greeks 472Vignette of an Ice Axe 474L'Enfant Prodigue 474The Mystery of the Alphabet 475Genetics 477Higher Criticism 477The Promise 477Good News and Gospel 478Paranoia Revisited 479The Honeymoon 479Palimpsest 480[the beginning of a long silence ] 481The Task Rejected 482Homage to Dante 482Tara 483Labor Day 484

Contents / xv

Sad Song"Plaster of Paris: Helen of Troy." 485Opening the Mountain, Tamalpais: 22:x:6s 486Lemon Trees 487Trip, 3O:x:65 488Portland in the Evening 489Opening Rainy-Season Sesshin 489White River Ode 490Eikei Soji 492Ginkakuji Michi 492"The Flexible Mind" 493The Judgment 493Sanjusangendo 494Synesthesia 494Crowded 494A Platonic Variation 495A Revolution 496Above the Shrine 497Point Richmond 497The Trolley 499The War Poem for Diane di Prima 499Waiting for Claude 505Some Places 507Ten Titanic Etudes 510Champ Clair Modern Jazz Coffee 513Ushi Matsuri 51 4The Garden 514Confession and Penance 51 6The Grand Design 516"Sheep May Safely Graze" 521Success Is Failure 521[Another Blank Discovery!] 522[I keep hunting through the house] 523The Winter 524Demachi 524The Winter 525[All of it came to nothing] 530[All of it went on the wrong page] 531

xvi / Contents

["NEFAS"] 532Poem 533[Winter money gloom] 534George Washington 535[Pet Shop] 536[What do I know is a small yellow] 53 7The Dharma Youth League 53 7[Outside] 538Failing 538To Henrik Ibsen 539We Sing in Our Sleep. We Converse with the

Dead in Our Dreams 539The Encore 540A Romantic & Beautiful Poem Inspired by the Recollection of

William Butler Yeats, His Life & Work 540"Never Apologize; Never Explain" 54117:111:67 541Something Childish but Completely Classical 543Regalia in Immediate Demand ! 543Characteristically 544Grace before Meat 546A Wedding Journey, an Opera 546Ultimate Frivolous Necessities 547Dewey Swanson 548The Apparition 549The War 550October Food 550In the Center of Autumn 551A Couple Blocks South of the Heian Shrine 551International Date Line, Monday / Monday 27:XL67 552America inside &: outside Bill Brown's House in Bolinas 55225:1:68 553Life in the City. In Memoriam Edward Gibbon. 554Allegorical Painting: Capitalistic Society Destroyed by

the Contradictions within Itself. (Second Five-Year Plan.) 556At the Red Whale Bar & Restaurant, Stinson Beach 556The Unidentified Accomplice or, The Transmissions of

C. W. Moss 558

Contents / xvii

The Evasive Answer 563The Madness of Saul 566To the Revolutionary Cadres of Balboa, Malibu &

Santa Barbara 566To All My Friends 568Larry Kearny at Stinson Beach 568Duerden's Garage, Stinson Beach 569Birthday Poem, 571Bill Brown 587Scenes of Life at the Capital 587Walking beside the Kamogawa, Remembering Nansen and

Fudo and Gary's Poem 648May First Revolution Day 649To Edward Dahlberg 649Science and Language 650For Kenneth Rexroth 650Four Other Places, More & Less 651Behind the Door 653Life at Bolinas. The Last of California 655For Kai Snyder 658A Letter, to Bill Berkson 658Allen Marlow 659Leaving the Capital 659"Home Again, Home Again . . . " 659Many Colored Squares 660"Not Heavily" 661"Up in Michigan" 662"Old Age Echoes" 662The Letter to Thomas Clark 22:VII-.7i from Bolinas where

He Sat beside Me to Help to Write It 663Portland Again 664Untied Airlines 665"Horrible Incredible Lies": Keith Lampe Spontaneously 665Imaginary Splendors 666Public Opinions 667Monument Rescue Dim 668The Summer Afternoon

xviii / Contents

"I Told Myself": Bobbie Spontaneously 669Look Look Look 669Mozambique 670The Turn 670A Return to San Francisco from Kitkitdizze 671Growing and Changing 671Rejoice! 674October First 675Rome 678New Mexico, after Many Years 678Occasional Dilemmas 681Minuscule Threnody 682Ode for You 682New Departures 684Alleyway 685In the Night 686Weather Odes 687Looking for Help 689Impatient Poetry for Ted and Alice B. 689Something Marvelous 690"Stolen and Abandoned" 691Desperately Awaiting the Arrival of the China Dinner Man 692Tassajara 692The Universal & Susquehanna Mercy Co. Dayton, O. 693Monumental Beer 694Message 695Kitchen Practice 695The Sesshin Epigram 695The Autopsy 696High-tension on Low-pressure Non-accomplishment Blues 697Mask 698Detachment, Wisdom and CompassionHomage to Aram Saroyan 699"La China Poblana" 699Money Is the Roost of All Eagles 700"The Conditions That Prevail" 700Zenshinji 701

Contents / xix

The Talking Picture 702Dream Poems 702Murals Not Yet Dreamed 704Epigram, upon Himself 704The Vision of Delight 705Luxury in August 705Pacific Telephone 706How To Be Successful & Happy Without Anybody Else

Finding out About It 706Look Away 707Organized Crime 708Ice Plant 709Compulsive Obligatory Paranoia Flashes 709Saturday 710Conclusions 711For Clark Coolidge 711A Crackling 712Window Peak 712Blossoms of the Lemon Tree 71 3Dorje Quandary 714The Bouquet 714Prolegomena to a Study of the Universe 715The Radio Again 719Somebody Else's Problem Bothers Me 720Bead 720Blurb 721Where or When 721Escaping April 722Powell & Market 724La Jolla in the Morning 724Brutal Landscape 726Mnemonotechnique 727Defective Circles 727The Simple Life 728Obsolete Models 728Many Pages Must Be Thrown Away 729Wild Talents 730

xx / Contents

The Congress of Vienna 730To the Memory of 732Lines for a Celebrated Poet 732The Wind Chimes 733That the True Nature of the Universe Might Be Like a

Vast Klein Bottle 733Song 734"Past Ruin'd Ilion" 734Garden Cottage # l 735"Back to Normalcy" 736For a Bluejay 736[A Little Sickness] 737"I Used to Work in Chicago" 738Messages 738Switch 739Tears and Recriminations 739Waste. Profligacy. Fatuity. 740Discriminations 740Homage to St. Patrick, Garcia Lorca, & the Itinerant Grocer 741Wandering Outside 742The Laundry Area 743Schubert Sonata 743What About It? 744Cynical Song 744"Can't You Be a Little More Selective?" 745The Inspection of the Mind in June 746Treading More Water 746I Can Look Any Way I Feel Like 747Treading Water 748The Holding Pattern 750What? Writing in the Dining Room? 750How Many Is Real 752Lost Fragment from The Impatient Monument 752Rodomontade 753What's New? 754Songs 755La Condition Humaine 756

Contents / xxi

Welcome Back to the Monastery 757Violins in Chaos? 758Litany of the Candy Infant of Geneva 758Extravagance (comma,) 759Homage to Sosa-No-Wo-No-Omikoto 760The Bay Trees Were About to Bloom 760Dying Tooth Song 761Rich Interior, After Thomas Mann 762Treading Water. Backing & Filling. 762Chanson d'Outre Tombe 764And Then. .. 765The Ghosts - 765The Phantom of Delight 766Divine Poisons 766Labor Day Again, 1979 at San Francisco 767Hot Springs Infernal in the Human Beast 768Homage to Hart Crane 769What Are You Studying, These Days? 770Mama 770The Roast Is Lost 771The Critic 772Definition 772Epigrams & Imitations 773Dharmakaya 774The First of 20 N ew Poem s 775Normally 775Somewhere Else 776Some of These Days 777[Quack] 781Splendors 782The Elizabethan Phrase 782For Shunko Enjo 783"Silence in the middle of traffic" 784Naturally Museum 784Partition 785Snow Job 785The Kenwood Hotel 1928 786

xxii / Contents

Thanksgivening 786"The Dilemma of the Occasion Is" 787For Allen, On His 6oth Birthday 788Gamboge 788Pathogenesis 789Maps and Mountains 789At Dharma Sangha 789On the Way to the Zendo 790Gourmets 790"My Fellow Americans," 791Action Traction Satisfaction 791By Accident or Design 792For Robert Winson 792Grievances 793Never Again 793The Expensive Life 794Oyster Music: Robert Schumann 794Affliction 795Jack's House 795[Poeta Nascitur...] 797Friday 798The Imperfect Sonnet 798Nothing Comes to Mind at the Moment 799Unagi-Don 799

Appendixes

APPENDIX A: Contents of Whalen Books in TheirFirst Book Publication 801

APPENDIX B: Calendar: Notes and Appendices 817

APPENDIX C: Essays and Prefaces by Philip Whalen 827

Goldberry Is Waiting" from The Poetics of The NewAmerican Poetry 827

[from Highgrade] 834

Contents / xxiii

The Preface [from Every Day] 835

Author's Note [from On Bear's Head] 835

Preface [from Decompressions] 836

About Writing and Meditation [from Beneath a Single Moon, ed. Kent

Johnson and Craig Paulenich, Shambhala, 1991] 840

Preface [from Enough Said]

APPENDIX D: Biography and Bibliography 846

Index of Titles 853

Index of First Lines 861

xxiv / Contents