Various (Rohmer, Bret (Editor); di Prima, Diane; Jones, LeRoi; Matson, Clive; Merwin, W.S.; O'Hara, Frank; Wieners, John et al.)

Signal: A Quarterly Review Vol. 1 No. 1 (Fall 1963)

New York, NY, USA: Brownstone Press, 1963. First Edition. Softcover. “All the while the lamps were glaring / Poor and bloodied fauntleroy / Whose puny bowel lay drying in his brain / But tell him you are coming in / Already you have slammed / The skull and hobbled / To his room his brutish room / – Your finger in my god-greased ear / Has rooted I must claim the fruits / And slap the mask in all this fury / Thus / the lamp-post for to piss upon / A white boy’s white finger stroking / Light whose passion was as rain / And it shall grow and bear us breeding / Then sliding on the beam’s cool edge / Where never night has flinched this way / And then to a window came we then / And this as much was his / Allwhile lamps astrangling stray / Like muttons over / Grassless rumps the buildings / Brickfed battered horns of conscience / Ego sum this label stuck on garbage / Brings no price / (Though we have hawked it among the best names…) / A white boy bent on water / Makes strange faces at his other / Poke-eyed huge tongue straight out / He urines in his mouth / And breaks the futile wind of love / Bladder eased the brain was eased / And all the while the lamps were laying eggs.”--Paul Zweig, “Narcissus,” pg. 11. A titanic literary magazine, Signal: A Quarterly Review was edited by Bret Rohmer and co-edited by Beat poetess Diane di Prima (1934-2020), and was one of the mighty, yet woefully under appreciated poetry mags of the 1960s. This issue, Signal: Fall 1963, Vol. 1, No. 1 features: “A Little Travel Diary,” and “From One Place To Another” by Frank O’Hara (1926-1966) legendary leader of the New York School poets; “Thread,” a snippet from a novel by Fielding Dawson (1930-2002) Beat-era author of short stories and novels, and a student at Black Mountain College; “The Moth” by Diane di Prima; “The Brushes,” and “African Memories” by Joel Oppenheimer (1930-1988) American poet associated with both the Black Mountain poets and the New York School; “Procrastination” by John Wieners (1934-2002); “Duncan Spoke of a Process,” and “Three Modes of History and Culture” by LeRoi Jones (1934-2014), a/k/a Amiri Baraka, noted American poet, writer, essaysist and activist; and “Narcissus,” (quoted above) and an untitled poem by Paul Zweig (1935-1984) American poet, memoirist, and critic known for his study on Walt Whitman (1819-1882), among many other great contributions! From the collection of scholar, poet and our dear friend Robin Eichele (b. 1941), noted Mimeograph Revolutionary & co-founder (with the late, great John Sinclair [1941-2024]) of the Detroit Artists’ Workshop. Signed in blue ink at title page by Robin Eichele. Softcover. First & only printing. In relatively fine condition with light wear to fine edges, slight tear at spine near both top and bottom of front cover, and minor discoloration due to age-toning to front & back covers as well as throughout interior. Fine. [Item #8808]

Price: $40.00