Mephistos & Other Poems

“He is such a sweeet paradox! Like most of Shelley and the late poems of D.H. Lawrence, McClure turns the phenomenal world inside out, seeking mind within mind.” —Diane di Prima

Michael McClure is a poetry legend. In this fresh collection of new poems, he continues his exploration of bio-romanticism, including an ongoing “grafting” experiment, growing new poems from fragments of older works. The book climaxes with “Song Heavy,” recounting McClure’s recent encounter with a beached whale and recalling his classic “For the Death of 100 Whales,” his contribution to the landmark Six Gallery reading in 1955: the inaugural moment of American eco-poetics.

“His words are of a new realm of love and joy and terror.” —Ray Manzarek

“Close attention will be rewarded in kind. Keep Mephistos near at hand, read only a poem or two at a time, let the imagery possess you. It’s okay, you can trust it. It’s McClure: he’ll never steer you wrong.” —Robert Hunter

“In Mephistos we are again thrown into Michael McClure’s lavish lair of forceful magic. Its actions are literal ones, handfuls of jewels disintegrate as a firewall rises to a solid prism. There is no poet more adept at calling forth the elements, only to fashion them later as eternal amulets for his readers. ‘NEW MOON ((BLACK!)) /STAR CLOUDS/ HALOES/ Flashlight reflects/ into two small eyes.’ You will find your body changed through the labyrinth these poems initiate.” —Cedar Sigo

“[C]ertainly a genius in thought and writing it out . . . McClure is one of the few contemporaries to have understood Kerouac as a literary poet—and learned some joyous classic invention therefrom. . . ” —Allen Ginsberg

Reviews

Paul Nelson
New York Journal of Books