Same here, David. I found tjhe Whap! Zowie! Pow! poem in a paperback
anthology when I was a teenager. And was it A Psalm to those who go forth
before Dawn? Great little fists of words to shake me out of my Eliot
fascination (followed quickly then by the Beats in my life).
Thanks for the link - a sad tale, mirrored by many poets' lives.
Andrew
2009/6/11 David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> Yes, Stephen. I recall coming across one of Fearing's poems when I was I
> young, I imagine you can guess which one, and for years never being able to
> find out anything else about him, while our erstwhile leftist poets of the
> 30's became Sir Stephens etc.
> best
>
> dave
>
> 2009/6/11 Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Thanks, David, for the link. I, too, liked this piece on Fearing, a
> > fearless as he seemed.
> > It remains amazing how the post-war/Cold War critics (i.e., the New
> Critics
> > and Southern Agrarians) in this country tossed these 30's writers off the
> > cliff. Writers who were radical, members of the CP, and, no doubt,
> obnoxious
> > and abrasive to the core in dealing with the T.S. Eliot worlds of high
> > mandarin culture, conservatism, et al. Boy did Daddy strike back. No
> matter
> > how successful many of Kenneth Rexroth's books have been with New
> > Directions, he, too, forever got the critical cold nose. (Of course,
> Rexroth
> > was openly contemptuous of that whole establishment, and that did not
> help
> > him, either!) I actually got a call from Kenneth Fearing's son in about
> > 1975 - who lived in Portland - asking me if Momo's Press wanted to do a
> > Collected Fearing (he was so much on the margins back then).
> > Retrospectively I was stupid not to do it. But then it seemed like a huge
> > revival project beyond my small press means or interest at the time.
> > Now days it strikes me that there are few groups of poets willing to
> front
> > for both their work and their politics - this David and Goliath
> challenge
> > of the time!
> >
> > Stephen
> > http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
> >
> > --- On Thu, 6/11/09, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > From: David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Kenneth Fearing article
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Date: Thursday, June 11, 2009, 9:43 AM
> >
> > http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=236900
> > if of interest.
> >
> >
> > --
> > David Bircumshaw
> > "Nothing can be done in the face
> > of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> > Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> > http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> > The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> > Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
> >
>
>
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> "Nothing can be done in the face
> of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
--
Andrew
http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
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