Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-325) and index
Introduction : how to walk on the slippery earth -- Charles Olson : architect of place -- Robert Creeley : occasional verse -- Robert Duncan : master of rime -- Jack Spicer : castle of skin and glass -- Robin Blaser : the practice of outside -- Susan Howe : a special view of history
In 1950 the poet Charles Olson published his influential essay "Projective Verse" in which he proposed a poetry of "open field" composition-to replace traditional closed poetic forms with improvised forms that would reflect exactly the content of the poem. ¡ The poets and poetry that have followed in the wake of the "projectivist" movement-the Black Mountain group, the New York School, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Language poets-have since been studied at length. But more often than not they have been studied through the lens of continental theory with the effect that these high