The Maximus Poems

Rating:
Summary: olson's maximus
Review: "In the land of plenty, have
nothing to do with it"

olson was a large man & the maximus poems is some of what he got down on paper.

"he and I seeming
the only ones who know
what we are doing, where
we are going"

it is a big book that requires time and care of attention

it's also a reference, something that can be "dug up" to serve as signs or points. the lyric passages are often very low to the ground

"the forests,
behind, transparent
from the light snow showing
lost rocks and hills
which one doesn't, ordinarily,
know"

Rating:
Summary: Dear Dellaphon
Review: A masterpiece (and an ample illustration of Gertrude Stein's answer to "why there are so few of them"). One wonders how Jacob Dellaphon (reviewer from RI) could manage to come away from his reading having allowed himself to LEARN absolutely nothing. Don't let any initial impressions of Olson's difficulty (or his pretention, or the pretention of some of his more zealous readers) steer you away from what he has WITNESSED. "Polis is eyes."

Rating:
Summary: Relief for Insomniacs - The "Poetry" of Charles Olson
Review: I was forced to read this dreck for an architecture(?) class. Although I love to read, and so usually approach unknown materials with an open mind, I quickly lost any illusion of interest once the first few pages were read. This "poem" is hard to follow, impossible to translate, boring to read.

Now if I could only find someone to take this book off of my hands.