The explosive original American surrealist poet returns in a new edition of a classic.
"This surreal and mantic project drives farther than anything before or after. Breathtaking! These are works of synesthetic beauty to the eye, the ear, and the open interior of the heart."--Michael McClure, author of Ghost Tantras
"I am eager to do a book of yours," Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote to Philip Lamantia in Nerja, Spain in 1966. "What about SELECTED POEMS OF PHILIP LAMANTIA?" The missive came at the right time, as Lamantia had reembraced the surrealism of his youth and sought to publish his current work alongside his key poems of the 1940s, when the then-15-year-old poet was published by the war-exiled leader of the Surrealist Movement, André Breton. For Breton, the young poet was a new Rimbaud, but Lamantia also became known as a Beat Generation poet, participating in the 1955 Six Gallery Reading, where Allen Ginsberg debuted "Howl." A pioneer of San Francisco's psychedelic culture, Lamantia reemerged through City Lights in time for the Summer of Love.
The sections of Selected Poems each reflect a particular facet of the poet's development. "Revelations of a Surreal Youth (1943-1945)" includes the incendiary poems from his teenage years which brought him to the attention of the NY avant-garde, including his signature piece, "Touch of the Marvelous." "Trance Ports (1948-1961)" covers his Beat years, evincing increasing involvement with mysticism, esoterism, and religion. Finally, "Secret Freedom (1963-1966)" heralds the return of Lamantia's surrealist inspiration, cementing his countercultural bona fides with the LSD-fueled "Blue Grace," the zig-zagging Kundalini-inspired "What Is Not Strange?" and the Aquarian Age ode "Astro-Mancy," which prefigures his later engagement with Native American culture.
This new edition includes an afterword by poet and editor Garrett Caples, recounting the book's genesis through archival correspondence between Lamantia and Ferlinghetti.
