The Maximus Poems

150 USD

Date

1960

Category

Poetry

Description

The Maximus Poems are divided into three volumes, meant to be read as a long, single poem--Olson refers to it as such. The collection includes "Maximus to Himself" and "Maximus to Gloucester," a series of poems to the town that were printed in the local newspaper. The most frequently anthologized pieces are the opening pages, a selection of the letters to Gloucester, and "Cole's Island," a poem from the last volume that describes his encounter with death. As a teacher at the Black Mountain College, Olson was one of the three most influential members of the Black Mountain movement, alongside to Robert Creeley and Robert Duncan. Creeley has joked that Olson was referred to as "Maximus" and he was called "Minimus," in reference to their teacher-apprentice relationship, a close friendship documented in their long, published correspondence.

Excerpt

the underpart is, though stemmed, uncertain is, as sex is, as moneys are, facts! facts, to be dealt with, as the sea is, the demand that they be played by, that they only can be, that they must be played by, said he, coldly, the ear! By ear, he sd. But that which matters, that which insists, that which will last, that! o my people, where shall you find it, how, where, where shall you listen when all is become billboards, when, all, even silence, is spray-gunned? when even our bird, my roofs, cannot be heard when even you, when sound itself is neoned in? when, on the hill, over the water where she who used to sing, when the water glowed, black, gold, the tide outward, at evening when bells came like boats over the oil-slicks, milkweed hulls And a man slumped, attentionless, against pink shingles o sea city) 4 one loves only form, and form only comes into existence when the thing is born