Of Indigo and Saffron

This essential collection of Michael McClure's poetry contains the most original, radical, and visionary work of a major poet who has been garnering acclaim and generating controversy for more than fifty years. Ranging from A Fist Full,published in 1957, through Swirls in Asphalt,a new poem sequence, Of Indigo and Saffron is both an excellent introduction to this unique American voice and an impressive selection from McClure's landmark volumes for those already familiar with his boldly inventive work. One of the five poets who heralded the Beat movement in the 1955 Six Gallery reading in San Francisco, McClure reveals in his poetry a close kinship to Romanticism, Modernism, Surrealism, and Japanese haiku. These poems--grounded in imagination and a profound regard for the natural world--chart a poetic landscape of utter originality.

Michael McClure is an American poet, playwright, songwriter, documentary film producer, and novelist. He has collaborated with prominent artists, poets, and musicians, including Allen Ginsberg, Jim Morrison, Terry Riley, and Janis Joplin. McClure's journalism has been featured in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle and he has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Obie Award for best play, and a Rockefeller grant for playwriting. His books of poetry include Mysteriosos and Other Poems, Huge Dreams, and Rain Mirror. Leslie Scalapina (1944-2010) taught at Mills College in Oakland and at Bard College in New York State. Among her many books are It's go in horizontal: Selected Poems, 1974-2006 (UC Press); Day Ocean State of Stars' Night: Poems and Writings, 1989 and 1999-2006, and Floats Horse-Floats or Horse-Flows.