Poetry. Following Volume One of ON THE NAMEWAYS, this newest work by this modern master is, as the name suggests, partly a meditation on the fact of names: Antonin Artaud in his shoulderpads/ leave and you can say hello/...Karl Malden in the moral void (from Arsenic and Old Blemishes). For Coolidge, the figure of the improvising jazz soloist becomes a model for the poet in the moment of writing -- darting in and out of motivic possibilities, exploring all registers of the instrument, and seeking, always, to sustain a flow of fresh ideas. In poem after poem he produces lines of abstract, bright, musical phrasing. Coolidge was a language poet before there was language poetry -- Michael Leddy, World Literature Today.

Author City: Petaluma, CA USA

Clark Coolidge (b. February 26, 1939) is an American poet born in Providence, Rhode Island. Often associated with the Language School, his experience as a Jazz drummer and interest in a wide array of subjects--including caves, geology, bebop, weather, Salvador Dali, Jack Kerouac, and movies--often finds correspondence in his work. Coolidge grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and has lived, among other places, in Manhattan, Cambridge (MA), San Francisco, Rome (Italy), and the Berkshire Hills. He currently lives in Petaluma, California.