Moe, H. David

How to Be God Now

Berkeley, CA: Deserted X Press, 2002. First Edition. Dated, inscribed & signed by H. David Moe to Thomas Rain Crowe. “Between low heaven & high earth / a feather cradles down / “Stone-Cloud roll deep to keymeat / Yes, Magellan jibbed his queery straits / while de Gama turned around the horn / & Columbus, lumbering along, walked a screwball sea / no ground to tether an egg to / Yet, to land Christ alive, bellybutton Frankenstein / womb bomb & all / We are, they were & I am / damn golden!””--H.D. Moe, “Pioneers,” How To Be God Now, pg 39. H.D. Moe, a.k.a., David Moe (1937-2013) was an American poet deeply fascinated with surrealism and a core, if not slightly older, member of the Second San Francisco Renaissance/Baby Beat Generation. His poetic activities included publishing Lovelights, the Erotic Poetry/Art Newspaper of San Francisco (at one time the most widely-distributed poetry publication in the world); curating two art galleries; and, in 1978, coordinating the San Francisco Poetry Festival. He published over 30 books of poetry, which include Ozone Allah (1978), The Logic of Snowflakes (1979), Quarks Heart (1980), Immortal Amebas Jigsawpuzzle Electron Gambling Hong Kong—The Cup Lands On The Saucer (1980), and Muse News (City Lights, 1988). Living in Berkeley, CA, he participated in numerous poetry readings throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, contributed to Beatitude Press and edited the Berkeley Review of Books. He also published a book of Utopian fantasy, Royal Poetopia and the Wild Law Civilization. His death brought forth a spontaneous outpouring of poems, memories, stories & commentaries from the San Francisco poetry community. Offered today is the 2002 book of philosophy, How to Be God Now. Half existentialism, half esoteric mysticism, and with a smattering of surrealist poetry, How to Be God Now is one of Moe’s most intriguing and deeply profound works. Moe’s incisive, introspective, and reserved yet powerful prose embarks on an incredibly audacious and ambitious project on the order of Being and Nothingness (1943) by Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) meets Ralph Waldo Emerson meets Freud. From the archive of Thomas Rain Crowe (b. 1949), scholar, writer and co-founding member of the Baby Beat Generation. For more information on the Thomas Rain Crowe archive (assembled & curated by Third Mind Books), see our book Starting From San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books (item #3071) & the catalog for the Crowe archive (see item #1010), which contains several excerpts and quotations from the book as well as a full listing of the archive’s contents, which are now being offered for sale individually on the Third Mind Books site. Inscribed and signed at inside front cover by Moe to Thomas Rain Crowe: “Jan 2002 / To Tom / this is my [indiscernible] / adventure into the / the essay poem & the / poem essay – / [indiscernible] / – you may / need your / deep [indiscernible] / outfit, / – love & the tops / to you brother poet. / H. D.” Trade-format softcover original. First edition though not explicated as such at copyright page, presumed first & only printing though similarly not explicated as such thereon. In very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges and slight smudging to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #7682]

Price: $60.00