The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry

I picked up The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry (OBAP from now on) while in Berkeley, which is very fitting considering the free speech focus of that town. I am not a huge poetry fan; I do, however, have a soft spot for outlaws, rebels, freaks, and geeks, and this seemed like a book made for those fringe dwellers. So I thought my love of the strange would overcome my (sorry) boredom with poetry. And so far, so good.

As with A Game of Thrones, I am going to dedicate several posts to this anthology instead of reading the whole thing and writing one review. I'm feeling a bit whimsical and unorganized and random these days, so I thought I would just run with that feeling here on the blog instead of being so patterned and boxed in. Hope you don't mind...

I have now read the first 23 pages which included the following poets:

• Walt Whitman: a nineteenth century poet criticized for his overtly sexual poetry 
• Jack Micheline: a San Franciscan beat poet from the 50s and 60s
• Jim Brodey: an underappreciated poet who wrote from the late 60s through the 80s
• D.A. Levy: a 1960s poet concerned with the search for infinity
• Tupac Shakur: late 80s, early 90s rap artist
• David Lerner: a bohemian poet railing against mainstream capitalism
• Sapphire: a performance artist writing blunt, graphic pieces on class and race

Outside of Whitman, these poems are "vulgar", meaning they use explicit language and describe rated R and X scenes. This may bother some people; luckily I am not one of them, especially since the use of graphic terms and descriptions is not gratuitous. There is a purpose, an intention behind the language choice. That was my warning for any who are more squeamish (cuss words ahead).

Whitman's poem is an introduction to the anthology, and I found it perfectly fitting:

Shut not your doors to me proud libraries,
For that which was lacking on all your well-fill'd shelves, yet needed
most, I bring,
Forth from the war emerging, a book I have made,
The words of my book nothing, the drift of it everything,
A book separate, not link'd with the rest nor felt by the intellect,
But you ye untold latencies will thrill to every page.

I, in no way, shape, or form, consider myself an expert on analyzing poetry. I've never been taught how, I've never been a big poetry reader, and I've never really read others' analyses of poems. But this one cried out to me as a stance against banning books ("shut not your doors to me proud libraries"). I feel like Whitman is saying that it is not the details of the story, the language and descriptions, that matter; but rather it is the truth of it, what it says about humanity and what it teaches humans ("the words...nothing, the drift...everything"). As I said, I think this a fitting introduction to a book peppered with "strong" language and "adult" content.

After Whitman's intro, the second poem is titled Poem to the Freaks by jack Micheline. Again, this is a good way to start out the book. While Whitman's poem encouraged others to open their minds to new possibilities, Micheline's poem validates and supports the outlaw poets who are about to share themselves with the world. "Raise your cup and drink my friend", Micheline encourages, "drink for those who walk alone in the night, to the crippled and the blind, to the lost and the damned, to the lone bird flying in the sky" for you are not alone and who you are is important. With those two poems, the editors have issued an invitation to readers and praise for them (assuming the reader is also a bit on the outskirts of mainstream).

Lerner's poem contains a section I also found very appropriate:

this ain't no
genteel evening over
cappuccino and bullshit

this ain't no life-affirming
our days have meaning
as we watch the flowers breath through our souls and
fall desperately in love

this ain't no letter-press, hand-me-down,
wimpy beatnik festival of bitching about
the broken rainbow

it is a carnival of dread

it is a savage sideshow
about to move to the main arena

Again, the reader is explicitly told what to expect from the rest of the book right in one of the poems included in the anthology. So let's get the main arena I say. I'm ready for some mind-fucking, hard-hitting, head-exploding poetry. :) I'll let you know how it goes a little bit at a time. The book is, after all, 645 pages long.