This morning of the small snow
I count the blessings, the leak in the faucet
which makes of the sink time, the drop
of the water on water
    from The Songs of Maximus, 'Song 3'

Charles Olson (1910-70) believed that poetry exists in an 'open field' through which the poet transmits energy to the receptive reader. Olson's influence on the development of British and American poetry through his writing and teaching is immense. His work encompasses myth, history, scholarship and politics, grand theories and delight in the particular variousness of life, all marked by the curiosity and openness to experience that he asked of his readers. Olson grew up and returned to live in the seafaring town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, and it was from the life and language of its citizens that his poetry drew its strengths.

The Reader includes extracts from the full range of Olson's poetry and prose, including letters, interviews and the full text of the key essay 'Projective Verse'. Ralph Maud, a colleague of Olson's from 1963-5 and the editor of Olson's letters, has supplied an introduction, supporting illustrations, notes and bibliography to this essential resource.

Table of Contents

Introduction

List of Abbreviations and References



I Prologue

La Préface

The Resistance (for Jean Riboud)



II Parents

The Post Office

As the Dead Prey Upon Us



III Projective Verse

The Kingfishers

Projective Verse



IV Maximus (1): Polis

Letter 3

The Songs of Maximus

Letter 10

Capt Christopher Levett (of York)

Maximus to Gloucester, Letter 27 [withheld]



V In Thicket

La Chute

In Cold Hell, in Thicket

The Ring of



VI Outside the Box

The Gate & the Center

from Mayan Letters

To Gerhardt, There, Among Europe's Things... 1

Human Universe

Variations Done for Gerald Van De Wiele



VII Maximus (2): Cosmology

Letter - 41 [broken off]

MAXIMUS, FROM DOGTOW - I

MAXIMUS, FROM DOGTOWN - II

The Poimanderes

I forced the calm grey waters

A Maximus Song

Maximus, at the Harbor

A Later Note on / Letter - 15

'View': fr the Orontes / fr where Typhon

after the storm was over

3rd letter on Georges, unwritten

to enter into their bodies

The Cow of Dogtown

Gylfaginning VI

All night long

[MAXIMUS, FROM DOGTOWN - IV]



VIII Causal Mythology

from Causal Mythology



IX Maximus (3): Earthly Paradise

having descried the nation

Maximus to himself June 1964

Cole's Island

Maximus of Gloucester

[to get the rituals straight

Celestial evening, October 1967

* Added to making a Republic

I'm going to hate to leave this Earthly Paradise

The first of morning was always over there

I live underneath the light of day



Appendix: 'Maximus, to himself'

TYRE

from 'Paris Review Interview'



Notes