Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia

Garrett Caples is a poet and editor for City Lights Books and the editor of the American poetry series, City Lights Spotlight. Andrew Joron is an award-winning surrealist poet and translator. Nancy Joyce Peters is the co-owner of City Lights Books; for much of its history, she served as its executive director and publisher, until her retirement in 2008. She is co-author, with Lawrence Ferlinghetti, of Literary San Francisco and has edited countless books for City Lights.

"...[brings] long overdue attention to one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century."

• Foreword, Lawrence FerlinghettiAcknowledgmentsHigh Poet: The Life and Work of Philip LamantiaEditorial NoteTouch of the Marvelous (1943–1949)The Touch of the MarvelousPlumage of RecognitionThe Islands of AfricaI Am ComingApparition of Charles BaudelaireThe RuinsBy the Curtain of ArchitectureThere Are Many Pathways to the GardenAutomatic WorldHermetic BirdMoments of ExileBeneath this bed the caverns gather me like waterI am a criminal when your body is bare upon the universeA Civil WorldInvisibleThe Enormous WindowMirror and HeartInfernal LandscapeA Winter DayAwakened from SleepThe Diabolic ConditionCelestial EstrangementSubmarine LanguorYou and I Have Nothing to FearThe Image of ArdorTo You Henry Miller of the Orchestra the Mirror the Revolver and of the Stars of StarsFrom Erotic Poems (1946)Upon the earth eyes opened in wonderYou flee into a corridor of starsScenarioFrom Dark Illusion to Love’s RealityI open for you an ancient bookNativity of LoveAutumn PoemsAnswer from a Place of WaitingI am forlornSorrowNight VisionUnable to move and hardly breathingSpring’s EntryTwo Worlds—1946A Simple Answer to the EnemyPoems 1943–1955Ages in the WindSymbolsAnother Autumn ComingThe New YearRevelations of a New OrderBreak of DayThis Room Is My CosmosDescentInside the JourneyAnimal Snared in His ReveryElementalsBeneath occidental peripheriesFrom Tau (1955)To see this evil from its coreThe OwlShot into the SunGoing Forth by DayGround grade guard the crucibleOut of crystal beginningsIn a garden that isn’t, but will beFlame gates open to water gongsShe sped to me a winter wordTo the MusicQuestionTo the flat lands by the hills of Suum Nar18 beings and The OtherBroken language hissesEkstasis (1959)PrefaceChristFragments from an AeroplaneInterior Suck of the NightIguana iguanaLes Langueurs AllongéesSheriWhat gift to bringBallMysterium Mysticus EcclesiaDead SmokeDeirdreIn a groveConfirmationJohn HoffmanAh Blessed Virgin MaryMan is in painAs some light fellThe Poor ParadoxesScorpion BiteOur Lady of the SnowThe New EvilBoobusPUT DOWNMcClure’s FavoriteObservatoryWhat made tarot cards and fleurs de lisTerror ConductionIntersectionIt’s summer’s moment in autumn’s hourIt was a time I didn’t see the beastBinocularsFrom Narcotica (1959)I Demand Extinction of Laws Prohibiting Narcotic Drugs!BonesOpium Cocaine HempOpium, Put Down of Laws against Opium!MemoriaPoems 1955–1962Scenes1. Füd at Foster’s2. Immediate LifeFor RealRest in PeaceInscription for the Vanishing RepublicOrphic PoemThe CallPolitics PoemLavaThat I burned by the screech owl castle in Berkeley HillsNew York Blank Poem New YorkCool ApocalypseApocalypsesBlank Poem for PoeVisionsThe marvelous unveils its faceDid I appear in angeltimeLast Days of San Francisco34 Words Six LinesTime Is as Eternity Is: On the White Road: The MuseWitnessAdventAll Hail Pope John the Twenty Third!A Poem for John Wieners Written on His PaperShooting down to L.A. in an open carThe Juggler in the DesertScatIn every way i am dazzled by youJet Powered SuicideMy LabyrinthWhy write about “things”?Chrism SongMake a poem your heart contained in mineIt is because i cannot have you i have youPoem for IndiansCeylonese Tea Candor (Pyramid Scene)RompiCrystalsKosmosYear of WeirOrigins of WeirDestroyed Works Typescript (1948–1960)Destroyed Works (1962)Hypodermic LightIt’s absurd I can’t bring my soul to the eye of odoriferous fireThat the total hatredOld after midnight spasmThey shot me full of holesU.S.S. San FranciscoImmense blank voidIn camera of sempiternity you walkThis World’s BeautyResurrectionsIt is I who create the world and put it to restA theater of masked actors in a tranceI have never made a poemMantic NotebookApocamanticaFin del MundoThe poem says the bombs of America went offAt the sleeper of inveterate carsThe ApocalypticThe gods made a circleA gazelle fixated in clock workLost in a crowdI’ve come to the time of brain crashed starsThis is the night holding gumSick of you, owl, talking nonsense in my headEmpty visions blur my soulSecret WeaponsTable of VisionsOpus MagnumDeaminFrom the FrontStill PoemsVacuous SuburbsThis is the grey limitThere’s a mountain of houses upside downThe night is a space of white marbleThere is this distance between me and what I seeI have given fair warningSpansuleJeanluMorning Light SongHighInfernal MusesCrabThe Bride Front and BackTill the End of TimePeroxide SubwaySubconscious Mexico City New YorkHow depressing here I amParades melt eternallyI cut out, I mean there was no proper head to the timeA Note on DESTROYED WORKS and laterPoems 1963–1964Song for the IntellectBabbel/Is a lanaguage extending the sonic levelBabbel/Ali ben buri de asaliumNew BabbelJ. WeirMumblesBloody NeonsFrom My Athens Terrace RuinGoing west east directionless pack to IndisAt RandomShe’s Appeared and Disappeared at OnceFrom Selected Poems (1967)The Third EyeBlue GraceThe Sun Is Bleeding over the Sky!The Ancients Have Returned Among UsShe Speaks the Morning’s FiligreeGork!Voice of Earth MediumsWhat Is Not Strange?Gothic GamesTowers of the Rose DawnCapricorn Is a Wounded KneeAstro-mancyAfter the VirusCoat of ArmsDifficult First StepsPoems 1965–1970Without PropsThere is no death, only sempiternal changeThorn of the AirThe Flying FixPoem for John Hoffman the PoetInterjectionsLet the tree shaped minion pinion the wonder of drugged dogsThe Blood of the Air (1970)To the ReaderThe Libran AgeI Touch YouYou wait you wailAltesia or the Lava Flow of Mount RainierBlue LocusThe TalismanFlaming TeethOpen your head of cisternsSan Francisco melts as I come togetherThe maginot line of poetry has not been inventedWith the opening of light in my soulEphemerisOut of My Hat of ShoalsSmile BerriesFantastThe Faery ChambersSeattleLittle hole of black hallucination on the wallThe mosque of your eye has explodedHorse AngelThe ComicsTonight Burned with Solar SlimeFlaming TeethPenetrant TumorsThe AnalogWorld without EndPoems 1970–1980A Little Washington DC Dream3 PoemsOn the plain/of the angelsA gorgon of the language cabalFlying beasts/are riveted on the air’s toilingThe Hand Moves the Word FliesLibertyLuminous LadyOnly Creative Violence Reveals the Beauty of the MarvelousWith the opening of light in my soulPanty Hose Stamped with the Head of the MedusaBetween Sleep and WakingTobacco of HararWeightBecoming Visible (1981)Redwood HighwayThe Romantic MovementBed of SphinxesPrimaveraBecoming VisibleVisibilitiesIn Yerba BuenaOraibiBile NatureDrama SetUltima ThuleMask of GeometryBeyond This Trail of Crystal RailsPoe-Baudelaire, one echo-in-twoDissolving LeadThe Erotic LimnedVibrationBelow the SurfaceOneiric ReversalOpenersViolet StarThis Moment Eternal MedusaPrecipitous OracleModular PreyPulsate with stoppagesRadiant OpalTo Begin Then Not NowLife SciencesThe Curtain of Magic Turns over Motors of SleepThe Fulcrum LoadedAt the Emu’s DomainThe Jewels of the Vatican Board the Atlantic CipherThe Days Fall Asleep with RiddlesThe Uncertain SciencesGreen LionOblique and DirectHypochondriac WeatherA Slice of the AtmosphereThe Element You LoveTime Traveler’s PotlatchNotesPoems 1981–1985Willow WandMeadowlark WestSentiment for the Cordials of ScorpionsBirder’s LamentPoetics by PlutoItinerary of Drift BaneMexico City Central MoonBird: Apparition of Charlie ParkerElegy on the Migrating Nightingales Massacred by Nuclear Physics at ChernobylMeadowlark West (1986)Isn’t Poetry the Dream of Weapons?Native MedicineTreeSurrealism in the Middle AgesWestShip of SeersHaven RootInvincible BirthBlack WindowAmerica in the Age of GoldWilderness Sacred WildernessSweetbrierThe RomantistReverie Has Its ReasonsVirgo NoirIrrationalGame’s the Right TitleWords I DreamPhiThe Marco Polo ZoneZanoni A Western Border TownBuncombeDeath JetsFading LettersThe Mysteries of Writing in the WestSpringAn American PlaceFourth of JulyThe Geometric HallucinationReached the TurnExorcist ExercisesOther StatesThereShastaPoems 1986–1993From No ClosureHaiku for SatieOnce In A Lifetime Starry ScapeFrom TriadsFrom Bed of Sphinxes: New and Selected Poems (1997)Poem for André BretonEx CathedraUnachievedDiana GreenEgyptEgypt IIPassionate Ornithology Is Another Kind of YogaFrom Symbolon (1998–2001)To be served continually with this platter of nothingnessUltimate ZoneSeraphim CityTheoriaRecallPure AutomatismNot with the cerebrating headEcho of St. Therese of the Child JesusFacing branches of a flowering treeHyper SleepHumans Have Just a Few Genomes More Than Fruit FliesToday and yesterday are fusingTriple V: The Day Non-surrealism Became SurrealistHidden TruthSelected Bibliography, Steven FamaIndex of Titles and First Lines