Like his college roommate Gary Snyder, Philip Whalen took both poetry and Zen seriously. He became friends with Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and Michael McClure, and played a key role in the explosive poetic revolution of the '50s and '60s. Celebrated for his wisdom and good humor, Whalen transformed the poem for a generation. His writing, taken as a whole, forms a monumental stream of consciousness (or, as Whalen calls it, "continuous nerve movie") of a wild, deeply read, and fiercely independent Americanone who refuses to belong, who celebrates and glorifies the small...

One of the most respected poets of the Beat and San Francisco Renaissance periods, David Meltzer has kept alive interest in the interface between jazz and poetry that exploded in the 1950s. This new edition of selected poems includes previously unpublished material and serves as a map to this very prolific and interesting poet.

"Out of a seeming mist of in-the-moment observations Michael Rothenberg treats us to hawk-like swoops of intellect that land unerringly on startling insights. He gives us the world that hides from the world and does so with wit, compassion and an ease with technique that renders his poems both masterful and readable." - Robert Priest "From under the Northern California Redwoods, Michael Rothenberg writes with an abundantly concerned and familiar voice, commenting freely about the world at large and matters at hand, keeping a sharp look at the aftershocks of reality in a future which happens...

Through the eyes of a private journal writer, poet Michael Rothenberg reports on the continual worldwide injustices, tragedies and killings we are forever made to bear witness to on the streets and via the media. What can be done? With compassion and humor, "Murder" begins the investigation.