Selected Poems: 1962-1985

Clark Coolidge is a revered figure in the world of American and world experimental poetry. This Selected Poems will be how Coolidge's revolutionary early works will be read for generations to come. The volume includes an Introduction by Bill Berkson, who writes: “From the heights each poem appears to take its own peculiar plunge. The insistent musings, discriminations, glees, puzzlements, irritability, those sardonic drive-by puns, and philosophic remarks that register almost as stage whispers without claiming any prior authority, all signify a powerful affection for the world as encompassed, and ultimately, Clark's will to articulate that fabled specific infinity he has had his eye on, the ‘quest to know anything, write everything,’ the Chapel Perilous of these poems.”

Clark Coolidge

Born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, experimental poet and jazz musician Clark Coolidge has been connected to both the Language movement and the New York School. His poetry utilizes syntactical and sonic patterns to engage, and generate, meaning. In a 1968 poetics statement, he noted, “Words have a universe of qualities other than those of descriptive relation: Hardness, Density, Sound-Shape, Vector-Force, & Degrees of Transparency/Opacity.” Reviewing Coolidge’s collection This Time We Are Both (2010), Olga Zilberbourg observed, “[It] is not a work of a cultural tourist, and neither is it a work of an artist whose sole interest is in creating wordscapes. In this long poem, Coolidge is a mature poet who is aware not only of the deep cultural contexts of his words, but also is aware of his poetry being read in political contexts.”
 
Coolidge’s numerous collections of poetry include This Time We Are Both (2010); Sound as Thought (1990), which was chosen for the New American Poetry Series; Own Face (1978); and Flag Flutter & U.S. Electric (1966). His work is included in An Anthology of New York Poets (1970) and The Young American Poets (1968).
 
A contributing editor for Sulfur, Coolidge lives in Petaluma, California.