Bard, Kinetic

(Paperback)

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• An almost-autobiography from one of the artistic legends of our time!
• Anne intersected with some of the most famous artists of the 20th century. She accompanied Bob Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue, was arrested alongside Allen Ginsberg (who called her his spiritual wife), corresponded with William S. Burroughs, Ken Kesey, Diane di Prima, and currently lives next door to Patti Smith.
• In keeping with Annes interdisciplinary career, this is a hybrid work that includes essays, letters, poetry, autopoetics, interviews.
• Besides a record of Annes fascinating and historic life experiences, this book also offers unparalleled insight into her life philosophy, in which poetry, activism, Buddhism, and politics are interlinked.

Reviews

Anne Waldman has tirelessly cleared the path for many of us for decades. She is our epitome of the word onward, which means to move forward in a continuous motion, never stopping because surrender is out of the question! Waldman's extensive study of the global perception of the Sixth Extinction through the lives of poets comes to light in this powerful new book, which is a record of the cycles of cosmic transit! She writes, Feeling everyones kinetics in that zone. But also all together swimming in a database. Imagine.CAConrad

Kinetic, yes. Prophetic also. Boundlessly generous, of course. This is the Anne Waldman I know. What a pleasure it is to find everything here: every ancestral memory, every important question, every exhortation to stay human in an inhumane century. If you are curious about the value of poets and poetry, peer into this magic mirror, drink from this deep and wide and entirely remarkable archive.Lisa Jarnot

I am tempted to describe the genius of the work in these radiant pages with a bounty of adjectives, but that would be a disservice to its restless momentum. Besides, Anne Waldman doesnt settle for nouns and their obsequious companions. More than dance in the range of numinous texts collected here, her intellect spins ferociously, shaking off the patriarchys layers of concealment one after another. For Gertrude Stein, another towering figure in the Outrider lineage, writing should go on. For Waldman it must do so as well, but further than the page and into the world. Goading us is just one of her gifts. To read her is to be humbled by the breadth of her vocation, to be jolted into alertness.Mnica de la Torre

Sweeping and intimate, fierce and electric, Anne Waldman is seer, muse, and sage feminist, fast-talking on all frequencies.Bard, Kineticis a collection of poems; deep, sharp, generous portraits; feminafestos; and ecstatic rants in her many voices. She notices, expounds, narrates, yodels. The book is full of questions. Its urgent, physical, ancient and utterly contemporary. What to name the child of the crossroad Poetry! Her words dance and spin through sources (the Tarot,The Tibetan Book of the Dead) and places (New York, Boulder, India). Words that come to mind: Sanctuary. Old growth trees. The mind and heart of poetry. What a colossal life and what a monumental, unforgettable book.Laurie Anderson

Praise forAnne Waldman:

Winner of the 2015 American Book Awards Lifetime Achievement Award

A major poet.Allen Ginsberg

When Allen Ginsberg passed from us it was Anne Waldman who dutifully gathered up his many burdens, continuing his work as poet, activist, and teacher. In following his example she has bloomed as an example herself. How fortunate we are to have her among us and may we all reach out and take a small amount of her burden upon ourselves.Patti Smith

Anne Waldman's voice is epic, mythic and above all, wild. She gives us direct courage from the force of her great heart. Her words: sacred text.Terry Tempest Williams

An essential poet of our time.CA Conrad

Wit, real teaching and speed all meet up here. . . . Anne Waldmans poetry being nothing but the eye and sound of prophecy itself.Eileen Myles

On the map from east to west and across the scale from treble to bass, Anne Waldman is possessed with a passion to witness, to understand, and to describe. . . . Enlightening, challenging, and crucial to the American tradition.Lisa Jarnot

Reading Waldman is like being in the world today. . . . Its easy to feel drawn to this poets idealism and generosity of spirit.Daisy Fried,The New York Times

The legitimate heir to Allen Ginsbergs crown as Americas underground poet-ambassador laureate.Colorado Springs Independent

Waldmans epic goes splendidly on and on, mixing the shamanistic with the diaristic, the topical with the prayerful, incorporating almost everything.Publishers Weekly

Author Bio

Anne Waldman is the author of numerous volumes of poetry including the feminist epic The Iovis Trilogy, Colors in The Mechanism of Concealment which won the USA Pen Center Award for Poetry in 2012. Other recent books include Manatee/Humanity, Gossamurmur, and Jaguar Harmonics, and the anthology CROSS WORLDS: Transcultural Poetics (Coffee House Press 2014, co-edited with Laura Wright). She is a recipient of the Shelley Award, a Guggenheim fellowship, and is a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets. She has been at the forefront of cultural activism, and one of the founders of the Poetry Project at St Marks Church In-the-Bowery and a co-founder with Allen Ginsberg of the celebrated Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University in Boulder, the first Buddhist-inspired University in the west. Her work has been published, most recently in French and Finnish.