Description
Posthumous AMBROSIA OF THE NETHERWORLD by H. D. Moe is the final long-poem by the co-founder of the Baby Beats.
POSTHUMOUS AMBROSIA OF THE NETHERWORLD by H. D. Moe is the final long-poem by the co-founder of the Baby Beats, written after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. H. D. Moe, who died in 2013, was the author of over 30 books of poetry, including Plug in the Electric Dictionary, Winged Wows and Death Kick. With an introduction by Jack Foley. Photos of H. D. Moe by Steve Wilson.
"Many of Moe’s poems are comic in their bizarre juxtapositions—and intentionally so. I remember his low chuckles as he read them, his amused delight in his own fabrications. . . The opening of Ambrosia of the Netherworld is different from that. Moe (1937-2013) knew he was dying when he wrote this book and knew as well that the book would be published after his death. The words here sound like a man talking fast—saying anything that pops into his head in an effort to stave off his all-too-imminent eternal silence. As long as he can talk (write), he is alive: ‘sinews of iterated dreams.’” —from the Introduction by Jack Foley
"H. D. Moe’ s final book of poems Ambrosia of the Netherworld provokes and delights. No one writes like Moe. His humor, slanted syntax, and genius oxymorons jump-start fresh thinking. Surprises and ‘ideas of glee’ abound. A third-eye thought- provoker, his work streams ‘like an immortal stem-cell. . . arising to flourish you.’ In the tradition of Dada and the Flux Correctionists, part trickster, part scholar, pure jazz poet, Moe invented a million ways to say Yes. An omnivorous autodidact, he named the 10,000 things, then rearranged them to startle us awake. Writing through illness, facing the afterworld, he made the music of a benevolent chain-buster bent on freedom for all. With this posthumous book he left us the other end of the ‘jabberwalky-talky.’”— Gwynn O’Gara, Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2010-2011
Poetry.
Author Bio
H.D. Moe (1937-2013) is considered one of the most important of the "baby beat" poets. Raised in Oregon and California, he served in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War and later attended school on the G.I. Bill. He studied at various times with a number of famous writers including Theodore Roethke, Philip Whalen, and Bernard Malamud. Suffering from dyslexia, he developed his own style of "jazz poetry," with vivid imagery and unusual juxtapositions. His poetic activities included publishing Lovelights, the Erotic Poetry/Art Newspaper of San Francisco (at one time the most widely-distributed poetry publication in the world); curating two art galleries; and, in 1978, coordinating the San Francisco Poetry Festival. He published over 30 books of poetry, which include Ozone Allah, The Logic of Snowflakes, Quarks Heart, Immortal Amebas Jigsawpuzzle Electron Gambling Hong Kong-The Cup Lands On The Saucer, and Muse News (City Lights, 1988). Living in Berkeley, CA, he participated in numerous poetry readings throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and west coast, contributed to Beatitude Press and edited the Berkeley Review of Books. He also published a book of philosophy, How to Be God Now and worked on a book of Utopian fantasy, Royal Poetopia and the Wild Law Civilization. His death brought forth a spontaneous outpouring of poems, memories, stories, commentaries from the San Francisco poetry community.
Author City: BERKELEY, CA USA