Poetry Comics
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Poetry in Motion
WEINSTEIN: ARE POETRY COMICS TOO GRAPHIC?
Jeff Weinstein
The Village Voice
New York, NY
Jul. 29-Aug. 4, 1981
Poetry in Motion--In 1978
someone told Dave Morice
that good poems would paint
pictures in yourmind. A
lightbulb went on over the
poet’s head. Why not Poetry
Comics?
Unless you write poems, the chances
that you have read any contemporary
poetry within the last year, or even the last
10 years, or slim. This is not criticism of
the average reader, or of the average poet;
it’s just the way of the poetry world. You
may have nibbled at a sonnet with a
famous byline in The New Yorker, or tried
to swallow one of the well-meant meter-
laden exercises in the back pages of The
Nation, because this is all that’s generally
available. But do you remember the poem?
Do you talk about it? Do you want to read
more?
New poetry is mostly for poets only.
Poets publish and distribute their own and
other poets’ work in hundreds of small-
press books and magazines. Poets read
these poems (at least they always read
themselves), argue about them, make a
living by teaching them. Poets attend each
others’ readings, praise and backbite, as-
sort themselves into schools of differing
influences and direction. The poetry world
in this country is a tight little island, even
more circumscribed than the art world or
theater world, which at least acknowledge
outside interest and support. Internecine
poetry-world struggles may seem lively to
an insider, but from outside, it’s a bit like
watching people eat their own vomit.
On the other hand, if poets don’t take
care of themselves, who will? Certainly not
major publishers, who aren’t disposed to
print literature for which screen rights
can’t be sold. A university press might, if
the poet teaches at the same university,
and promises not to feel too bad if the work
is remaindered in three months because no
one paid $12.95 for 87 unpromoted pages
in cloth. Government small-press funding,
an important source for poets and writers,
is slowly going the way of all funding: to
grants tomb.
Present exceptions to poets-onlyh poems
usually spring from the schools of poetry
that try to speak to specific-audience
groups: feminist, gay and lesbian, black,
Hispanic, and Native American. Not all
this work is wonderful, or even what the
poet-poets call competent--think of a cat-
agory where that isn’t true--and its au-
diences are insular by definition; but it is
being read by nonpoets. Although one
would hope that some poet-poets would
notice this, specific-interest poetry is not
taken seriously by “professional poets” be-
cause it breaks their rules: it supposedly
lacks awareness of formal English-
language tradition, it flaunts its historical
content, and untrained people can read it,
want to read it. Content and popularityare
anathema to most of the poets-only poetry
world; they connote a lackof seriousness.
The poetry world distrusts popularity so
much that it has sometimes disowned its
own stars.
But lately, the poetry world has not
produced any stars. Nor is there a public
democracy of exciting poets. We can only
hope for Emily Dickinsons. Poetry, at the
moment, is quiet. It may be that this reti-
cence, this apparent unconcern with the
world, is a failure not only of the poetry
support system or of a postliterate, image-
oriented audience, but of contemporary
poetry itself. One of the tactics of modern-
ism, of contemporary art of any kind, is to
find its audience, toinvent it if need be, or
at least to try.
*
If I wasn’t on the outskirts of the poetry
world I would never have received copies
of Dave Morice’s Poetry Comics in the
mail. At first I didn’t know what they were,
couldn’t place them, which is a good sign.
As they piled up in the bathroom I began
to see first how amusing they are, and then
how smart. It’s one thing to illustrate, com-
ic-book style, Coleridge’s “Rime of the An-
cient Mariner” (issue number 12), a classic
story that lends itself to narrative illustra-
tion. Anyone who used Classics Illustrated
comics to slog through Adam Bede in high
school knows the predecessor here. It’s
something else, though, to break “The Red
Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams
(“so much depends / upon / a red
wheel / barrow / glazed with
rain / water / beside the white / chickens”)
into narrative frames, as Morice does on
the first page of the first issue, or to storify
excerpts from Robert Browning’s “Fra
Lippo Lippi” (everybody’s favorite), or,
most tellingly, to request submissions from
poetry-world poets to bge comicized. This is
not a Joe Brainard-like reciprocal col-
laboration of a visual artist and poets.
Although there is a tradition of inspiration
in English poetry, either by religion, the
secular muses, or the Romantic spirit of
nature and dream, Morice’s inspiration is
poetry itself. Poetry makes him want to
draw comics. He is also inspired by the
poets-only poetry world.
Of course, Dave Morice, 34, is a poet.
He has been writing poems since he was
six. Once a student at the University of
Iowa’s Creative Writing Program--Iowa
City is the geographic center of the poetry
world--Morice, sometimes known as Dr.
Alphabet, publicly spray-painted the
world’s longest poem, connecting New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, across the New
Hope-Lambertville Bridge. He invented
“Joyce Holland,” a minimalist poet (her
one-word poems, Matchbook, are stapled
inside matchbooks) and performance
artist who had no small effect on the
poetry world; for three years Morice hired
an actress to concretize her at readings.
Morice also single-handedly created a
now-famous school of poetry--famous to
poets, anyway--called Cutism. His Cutist
Anthology includes poems by Sally
Lunchkins, Tommy Triped and others.
“Have a nice day” artwork by Roberta
Periwinkleshoe, and the requisite de-
fensive polemic by Samuel F. Romular.
Morice’s send-ups attest to his connection
to a school of poetry that began in Iowa
City (a real school, I think) called Ac-
tualism. “Actualism does to things what
light does to them,” says Darrell Gray
in the Actualist Manifesto. “Cute, Cuter,
Cutist,” says Morice, in the lost Cutist
Manifesto.
In 1978 someone told Morice that “good
poems would paint pictures in your mind.”
Morice wondered how “Prufrock” and Syl-
via Plath’s “Daddy” would look as comics,
so he drew them, publishing “Daddy” the
next year in Poetry Comics No. 1, which
he mailed to poets around the country. “Nev-
er liked Sylvia Plath before you,” wrote
Harley Lond, editor of San Francisco’s
small-press Intermedia magazine. Poet-
praise came rolling in: “Absolutely
brilliant…” (Bill Zavatsky), “i love ‘em &
so does my eight year old” (Joel Op-
enheimer), “Terrific” (Maureen Owen),
“… break through stony accretions!”
(Anne Waldman), “… best buy in the
universe” (Robert Creeley), etc., along
with offers to use their work. Since poets
]snapped at the bait, Morice published
their hermatic letters, and any others he
received, in the Muse’s Mailbag, now a
regular feature of the magazine. Poetry
Comics began to illustrate the boundaries
of the poetry world; poets love to be pub-
lished in any form.
The comics, however, are works in
themselves. Literary tradition sits heavily
on poets, and avant-garde poets since
Apollinaire have tried to throw it off by
attempty to “demystify” both their own
work and poetry in general. Morice de-
mystifies by juxtaposing familiar poems
with various--and variously successful--
borrowed and original cartoon styles,
sometimes to funny and sometimes to
touching effect. But he also creates a story
where little or none was apparent before
by heightening the narrative affinity of
language, an affinity more than one school
of present poets absolutely denies. Nar-
rativeness doesn’t harm poetry; even his
attempt to frame, for example, the non-
word syllables of John Cage into a nar-
rative progression still acknowledges the
randomness, the integrity, of the original.
Since narrative has had a bad rep among
modern poets, not everyone likes Morice’s
supposed playing around. Denise Levertov
mailed Morice her reservations, which he
published: “… The thing is, as with
parodies, a humorous angle on a non-hu-
morous work of art may have the un-
fortunate effect of spoiling the original--
i.e., one is liable to always have the recol-
lection of the jokey version looming up and
obstructing any further receptivity8 to
some beautiful poem or painting.” It’s a
weak poem that can’t hold its own, and
Levertov doesn’t see how the comics are
sometimes homages to the original, some-
times creative readings, and always work
in themselves. The “beautiful object” the-
ory of poetry has kept a lot of people at
arm’s length from some great work.
Morice’s comiocs do more than defusde cant;
they help to revivify poetry.
Comic books are worth attention too,
and so didact Morice, who teachers poetry
to children and senior citizens and is adept
at engaging them with tricks of the poetry
teacher’s trade., demystifies once again by
treating adult poet-poets to games,
puzzles, an elaborate poetry crossword
(first prize was $20 and 20 comic books,
and a poetry anthology), an Ana-
gramarama (Walt Whitman – Law? Haw!
I’m TNT), and Poetrivia (“In 1858 , Emily
Dickinson served as judge in the Bread
Division of the Cattle Show in Amherst”).
Last year Morice began to send PC out of
the poetry world, to a judiciously selected
group of “famous people” who are not, to
my knowledge, poets, and printed some of
the interlopers’ responses in the Muse’s
Mailbag. Art Linkletter, Liza Minnelli,
Virgil Partch, Elizabeth Taylor Warner, S.
I. Hayakawa, Vincent Price, Clayton
Moore (the Lone Ranger), Pearl Bailey,
John Kenneth Galbraith, or their secretar-
ies, to name a few, acknowledged receipt.
Many, like Ruth Gordon, were pleased:
“Your comics have a lot of style. A lot of
drive. And nice to hear from Iowa City. I
played a one night stand there in late 1916
or 1917 early on. Fair and Warmer. My
second year of acting and I was a leading
lady.” But others were less accessible.
“Since this type of humor is not the kind
that Lily finds amusing I am returning it to
you without having presented it to her.--
Julie Harding, Secretary/Assistant to Lily
Tomilin.” Morice sent these copies out of
curiosity, but also as a work of mail art.
(Mail art--using the post office to dis-
tribute work made expressly to be mailed)
has been utilized by artists like Eleanor
Antin to comment on, and solve by in-
corporating into their art, the problems
out of towners face in a New York cfen-
tered art and publishing world. With the
right mailing list…)
If only distribution were poetry’s major
problem. One can’t expect a public to hang
on every word of even the best modern
work the way a great proportion of the
English readership tracked Childe
Harold’s Pilgrimage as if it were news. (A
“great proportion” of England’s readers in
1812 was, however, a tiny fraction of its
population.) Of course, popularity alone
cannot be any measure of merit; the new
may be difficult, and, subject to the
motives and skills of the publishing in-
dustry, we can’t assume that the good will
out in any case.
But how has pleasure been drummed
out of the poetry we have, from a form that
so much depends upon a reader’s active
delight in language and surprise? Once a
student of English, and a teacher, I suspect
that some of the pleasure in creative,
polysemous reading is taught out of
poetry, for those who are exposed to it at
all. Dave Morice’s serious success in
Poetry Comics, “slight stuff” as one an-
noyed writer called them, is not only that
he tweaks the nose of the poetry world, but
that he dares to reactivate at least one of
poetry’s pleasure principles, the freadom
that “I can read it as I please.” A little
pleasure will demand more.
Poets and uninitiates alike can sample
a copy for $2--a lifetime subscription is
$50--by writing to Morice at Box 585,
Iowa City 52244. It is unfortunate that,
unless something changes, the inside of
that post-office box may be as close as the
two groups will get.
*
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWER
Andrei Codrescu
City Paper, Baltimore, Oh., Jan.16-20, 1981
POETRY COMIX, EDITED BY DAVE MORICE, BOX 585, IOWA
City, Iowa 52244, has been rapidly “cartoonizing” the world’s great
poetry. All the cartoons are by the editor while the words in the balloons
of his incredible landscapes and characters and landscape-characters are by
Emily Dickinson, Shakespeare, Hart Crane, Walt Whitman, Wallace
Stevens, William Carlos Williams, John Cage, Darrell Gray, Pat Nolan, Clark Coolidge and others.
Morice, or “Dr. Alphabet” as he is fondly known, is a fine poet in his
own right whose sense of what poetry can do has gone beyond the page on
several occasions. He has invented Joyce Holland, a minimalist poet, who
made quite a name for herself both for her performances (an actress was hired fror them) and for her magazine of one-word poems, Matchbook, which was stapled inside matchbooks donated by local business. She would have gone on to a great career if Morice hadn’t abruptly blown her cover after three years. In two separate bids for entries into the Guiness Book of World Records, Morice wrote “the most poems at one sitting,” a 24-hour effort which produced one thousand poems in an Iowa Bopokstore, and “the world’s longest haiku,” a haiku with a mile-long middle line. People dressed in “poetry clothes” appeared with Morice on several TV shows. A senior citizen’s poetry class led by Morice made a “poetry chair,” completely covered with words, as well as a very fine poetry magazine. Morice’s playfulness is, in varying degrees, characteristic of the small group of poets from Iowa calling themselves “Actualists.”
“Actualism,” says David Hilton, who is in The Actualist Anthology (The Spirit that Moves Us Press, 1977), “is a perception of the world without preconceptions.” Darrell Gray, who baptized the movement, explains in his Actualist ManifestoP: “Actualism does to things what light does to them.” Since its inception in the early 1970s, Actualism has taken surprising flight. Some of the mgazines cnnected with it are among the finest poetry publications of the past decade: Toothpaste (edited by Allan Kiornblum), Suction (Darrell Gray), Search for Tomorrow (GeorgeMattingly, who later founded Blue Wind Press), Gum (Dave Morice), Matchbook (Joyce Holland)… The contributors have included well known contemporary poets alongside the originaol Iowa group.l Other magazines of the time took on an “actualist” tinge if only because the spirit was contagiouis. I can think of Blue Suede Shoes (Keith Abbott, in California), The End (Pat Nolan, in Californiaj), Strange Faeces (Opal L. Nations, England). Actualist sympathies were surrealist, New York School, cannabis, beat and Midwestern, and still are. Several “ActualistConventions” were held in IowaCity, Berkeley and San Francisco, wonderful events open to performance art, video and strange musical happenings. It all started as a “put-on esthetic movement” and went on to become an enduring sensibility.
Poetry Comix goes a long way toward demystifying the poetic act without taking away the greatness. Morice’s readings are accurate, respectful, awed at times, and always sympathetic. Even when he gives a somewhat “lateral” reading, as in the case of “Xanadu” where Kubla Khan’s “pleasure dome” is a huge skyscraper named “Samuel Taylor Coleridge” in the middle of a futuristic, solar city, the percption is right on. Poets have responded enthusiastically to the idea, as many of the letters reprinted in the magazine attest. A few, Denise Levertov among them, have objected to what they see as excess frivoli9ty, but they miss the point. If anyone is to go near poetry out of any sense other than duty, we need more not less humor. “Abuse the Muse” and “Amuse the Muse.” It does both, with great style.
--Andrei Codrescu, reviewer
CITY PAPER, Vol. 5 No. 86, p.22
Baltimore MD
The Muse’s Mailbag
LETTERS FROM THE READERS
By Poetry Comics No. 4 (PC-4), I’d been receiving lots of mail in reply. With that issue, I started a letters column. The title was a take-off of the Metropolis Mailbag appearing in Superman Comics. The letters column enabled readers to play an active role in Poetry Comics, to take part in it, to collaborate in it--and collaboration is one of the seven pillars of Actualism.
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-4, Dec 79)
The comics sabotage the rhetorical
qualities of the poems, ballooned
into portentious fragility, much
needed in some cases. Why not go
for the real rhetoricians, John “The
Aesthete” Ashbery, Robert “Skunk
Hour” Lowell? Substantial works
come off worst in this form.
Romantics are abvious targets,
Elizabethans. Why not de-fuse the
cant of contemporary works? Bly,
for example.
Cheers. Change the world,
--David Gitin
Thanks so much for the new POETRY COMICS.
I and my wife have been enmjoying them tremen-
dously. They are absolutely brilliant, real
“translations” from the verbal to the visual.
Too bad Harcourt, Brace doesn’t get smart
and commission you to comicize T.S. Eliot’s
complete works.
I’d like to do a writeup on the series for
the spring issue of SUN. Should I stay away
from mentioning or reproducing non-public
domain material, like the Pound and Eliot,
etc.?--which might get us both sued? (I*’m
assuming you haven’t cleared rights to them
with the publishers.) Anyhow, I’ll be back
to you on this before long. Let’s hear from
you! Keep up the beautiful work…
--Bill Zavatsky, SUN
And so I said to myself, “Micki, what
better time to sit down and dash off a
billet doux to Dave.” A friendly letter
to let you know how much I enjoyed your
rendering of a favorite poem “Ozymandias”;
to express my sincere thanks to you for
printing my letter; to tell you how clever
and intellectually stimulating I found
your contest. And to let you know, in a
friendly way, that if I don’t win first
prize you can kiss that check for $10,000
good-bye.
Your friend,
--Micki Gottesman, SHANTIH
* * *
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWERS
“POETRY COMICS #2 offers neither poetry
nor comedy.” (sent in an envelope addressed to
“POETRY VOMIT”)
--SAMISDAT #86, review
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-5, Jan 80)
Your abuse-the-muse comix were greeted here
with joy and enthusiasm as the proper aegis
for the new decade and were as such trans-
formed into coffee-house books (righ there,
on top of the TV where everyone puts the cup)
and seen by all.
Alice wonders if you accept contributions.
If so, she’d love to get down with Homer. Not
really, but she would like to know. Speaking
of Homer, he’s teaching in the Classics Dept.
at Johns Hopkins here. Several of him, that
is. If you want a professor, produce a child
& name him or her Homer. Then he can join us.
--Andrei Codrescu
Anselm showed me the comics which are genius
& I’d like to order for my Naropa students--
10 of each? Please send & bill me… Always
admired everything you’ve done all these years
& wish you a happy 1980! Beautiful, still,
discreet here in Sweet Briar. We’re about to
drink some “Old Bourbon Hollow” & I read
tonite.
--Anne Waldman
Many thanks for Poetry Comics #3 & 4. I
especially enjoyed I WANDERED LONELY AS A CLOUD
& WHEN I HAVE FEARS, as did Shelley, my girl-
friend. Bright rays of light over our other-
wise potentially dismal vegetarian life. Storm
clouds now “usurping” the sky. I am moving
next week. Teaching high school still, & re-
cuperating from 4 days in the hospital with
pneumonia--a horrible ailment that attacks the
lungs and appetite. Your comics were a source
of great inspiration (as opposed to expiration).
Keep them coming! Maybe do D.Dickinson’s “I
Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died” or Weldon Keyes’
“The Crack”??
--Darrell Gray
God – it’s been so long since we met & we
just got to talk so little & there were some
Other people there – it was all so wonderful –
& we xchanged periodicals & literary whatnots
across the burly brown spring continent.
Feel real dumb, believe you me, for not
writing previously. Rereading Speakeasy #3
– terrific – I’m teaching elders now too –
– my hand hurts – heavy – surprise…
Bill me for a subscription, Comix too.
They’re NUTS!
--Jeff Wright, Hard Press
Everyone everywhere should be forced against
their wills to do poetry comix.
--Tom Ahernj, Diana’s Bi-Monthly
* * *
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWERS
More pure joy from Dr. Alphabet. Dave Morice
has taken various “classic” poems such as “The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,””Daddy,” “Fire
and Ice” and “I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud”,
broken up the text into frames and illustrated
it. These comics are to their subjects what
Classic Comics were to Ivanhoe or Kidnapped, but
with a great, surreal twist. I can’t imagine
what poetry teacher, high school or college,
couldmanage without these classroom aids. These
works are all play and deserve to instantly be-
come underground legends. Send money. Now!
--Warren Woessner, in Abraxas #18-19
* * *
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-6, Feb 80)
* * *
Thanks for “Poetry Comix #5! Terrific!
Your drawings are getting closer to represen-
tation. John Ashbery esp. looked just enough
like John to be completely funny & yet still
his handsome self…
--Maureen Owen, Telephone
I love especially “Some Trees,” in fact I
am rolling on the floor. I love the trees
growing out of J.A.’s ears & the look in his
eyes in that “frame.”
Have you thought of “Metaphysidal Poets”
issue?
--Anne Waldman, Naropa Institute
I think your idea of sending 10 back issues
of Poetry as the booby prize for the Poetry
Comics crossword puzzle is great: haven’t
laughed so much in a long time.
--Effie Mihopoulos, Mati
This thing (Crossword Puzzle) is fiendish.
One could easily spend the whole month on it.
--Richard Morris, COSMEP
Really delighted by your take on “OH NO”--
and grateful. You sure are a pleasure, and
if there’s ever chance for collaboration
from my side, we’ll see what’s possible--
you bet.
Meantime--do send one of these to JOEL
OPPENHEIMER, c/o VILLAGE VOICE, NYC – etc.
“Oh No” is one of his old favorites, making
me honorary few, as he used to say. Anyhow.
Here’s $3.50 for sub – best buy in the
universe!
--Robert Creeley
Your new POETRY COMIX is astounding! You
yourself are astounding, to come up with
such visually captivating depictions, the
syncopations, pacings from frame to frame to
frame are even more masterful. R. Crumb
looks plae and silly (irrelevant) compared
to what you are doing. I am looking forward
to doing the puzzle at the back of the book,
but paroxisms of hilarity overtook me after
SOME TREES and OH NO. David Gitin’s sugges-
tion that you do contemporary poems as well
is a fine idea. Good poems, of course, are
also the best--to illustrate Kilmer’s TREES
might be funny, but also “silly”--tho even
that, in yr hands (and pen) could be great!
I still think Dickinson is a “sitting duck”
for illustration, altho a great poet too.
I HEARD A FLY BUZZ WHEN I DIED, or I CANNOT
LIVE WITH YOU: THAT WOULD BE LIFE (in the
definitive Thomas Johnson FINAL
HARVEST--a great book.) Another possibility
is Sr. Thomas Wyatt’s THEY FLEE FROM ME WHICH
ONCE THEY DID ME SEEK. These, of course, are
oldies, and as Gitin suggests, you might want
to move to more contemporary poets. To do a
Clark Coolidge poem would be a real chal-
lenge--a poem poem such as FED DRAPES, from
his book SPACE. I’m also wondering if you’re
open for submissions: I have a few short
pieces myself, which I’ll xeroxs and send to
you. I also love to read the letters from
the readers (that dumb one from the guy, or
gal, I can’t remember which, a while back
shows just how programmed some readers of
literature are!)
------ Speaking of “language poets”, I’m
giving a talk later this month at PANJANDRUM
BOOKSTORE, based on my essay THE NEW CONVEN-
TIONALISM, which has stirred up quite a furor
out here. I doubt that many language poets
will atend. Do you have a copy of the essay?
If not, I’ll send one on to you. Therein, I
raise the question of a strictly programmatic
approach to poetry: why writing in one foirm
(avoidance of linear meaning) is superior to
direct statement (not “confessionalism” per
se, but as in Dorn), but (as opposed to
Watten), there are NO intrinsically immoral
FORMS. Your work (in the Cjomiox) best exem-
plifies this, and if I could order about 20
copies of the issue that has THE LOVE SONG OF
J. ALFRED PRUFROCK, FIRE AND ICE, etc., as well
as No. 5, with SOME TREES in it, I would be
grateful… My talk (“lecture”) is on Feb.
28th, so please respond as soon as you can.
I’m sure the audience will enjoy yr COMIX,…
I wish you all the best. And keep the comix
coming!
--Darrell Gray
WONDERFUL to receive POETRY COMICS 3 & 4
(are 1 & 2 out of print?) hope not--enclosed
sub.)--they had me, Laurie, and Anne Waldman
(visiting) rolling on the floor, once
again--AW & I sent postcard, I take it she’d
like to use them in poetry classes at the
Jack Kerouac School of Poetics in Boulder
(she’s co-director of, w/Allen Ginsberg)…
Winter, finally, here, too-----but live in
hopes of Spring occurring, as it did last
year, 1st week of March---
FINITE CONTINUED, from Blue Wind (Box
7175, Berkeley, CA 94707), slated for March
15: WITH RUTH IN MIND, Station Hill Press
(Barrytown, NY 12507), roughly same date
(“tell the bookstores,” etc.)
Imbibing some Pepe Lopez con cerveza,
Fleetwood Mac on local cultural radio,
gentle snores of Laurie (McElroy), Wanda
(Airedale), and Kissakatti (Baron Kissakatti--
Finnish for “Kiddycat”--foundling tiger,
eyedropper & baby bottle –raised, now 6
months & a terror: but, no kidding, he, too,
SNORES--gently--)--otherwise, All Quiet
Here in Sweet Briar Hobbitland--
Up to NYC this week, reading at Ear Inn
on the 9th w/Jeff Wright--traveling com-
panion & navigator, Andrei Codrescu (pick
him up in Baltimore: if you can, send him a
set of PC--he’d love ‘em--& back here for
St. Valentine’s Day. (He was toasted,
y’know.)…
So, greetings--& let’s see abt these here
Eighties--
Say Hello to all dear friends--tell ‘em
I love ‘em, but only occasionally remember
how to write--
Oh ye gods, well, yes. How many lives
does one have? What? Just one? Who’s
this?
--Anselm Hollo
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-7, Mar 80)
* * *
We don’t quite know what to make of Poetry
Comics, but thank you nevertheless for sending
us a copy--and for your kind note.
--Phoebe-Lou Adams, The Atlantic Monthly
Thanks for sending us a copy of Poetry
Comics No. 6. Several people on your staff have
enjoyed it greatly.
--David Gates, Newsweek
Thanks for sending Poetry Comix to CHP. The
reaction here was mixed. Some liked the idea
of abusing the Muse, some liked to see “clas-
sics” being printed (in any form) some sniffed.
Anyway, Coach House wouldn’t be interested
in publishing poetry comix, besides you seem
to be doing an adequate job yourself.
It will be interesting though to see if your
idea catches on. Best of luck.
--Clifford James, Coach House Press
I enjoyed the Poetry Crossword and desper-
ately the solution. (The symbol of
comedy in the theater can’t be “somk.”)…
--Bess Osenbaugh
Just received Poetry Comics #6 which was sent
to my old address on 95th St. where I haven’t
lived since 1970. I didn’t get No. 5 with
“Some Trees” in it--I’ve seen it but can’t buy
it anywhere--could you (please) send me a copy?
Thanx and best wishes.
--John Ashbery
I just got back from taking my last Ph.D.
exam in Denver. That last issue (esp. Ginsbgerg’s
Supermarket) was a howler, the best so far.
Back here, what do myh amazed eyes behold--the
Pope epigraph, which I’ve used as my own in
Three, by Randy Tomlinson, Victoria McCabe, and
myself. I left the half-finished crossword at
Victoria’s in Denver. It was a tough one.
--Jim McCurry, Delirium
thanx thansx for poetry comics – i love ‘em
& so does my eight year old, seriously. are
they distributed here anywhere?... can you keep
sending? do you want poems, or do you pick your
own? What are the answers to the cento, so i
can check. i’m sure of 15, pretty sure of 9,
pure guesswork on 6.
has anyone collected silver surfer’s corpus?
--Joel Oppenheimer
Am really enjoying your Poetry Comics! Can
appreciate the innovation not only in poetry
but the comix style & drawing. Let’s face it,
Muse, art & poetry need more humor. Congratu-
lations for coming up with something very fresh]
& clear--obvious, yet no-one thought of it…
--Bruce Houston
…Your comix really show that great poietry
is probably eternal and universal. Not so much
because it can be illustrated, but because the
language is shown to be so alive, and the
concepts can still freak you out.
I’m sending you a copy of my latest book
INRI in appreciation.
--Joe Ceravolo.
Many of your correspoondents seem to be
“rolling on the floor.” That is quite a nat-
ural impulse upon encountering Poetry Comics,
and I should not wish to discourage such
activity--but I feel obliged to inject a cau-
tionary word. Rolling on the floor is danger-
ous. I still carry deep bruises from my first
abandoned rollings about when your #1 and #2
appeared. (In my frenzy to roll, I forgot to
clear the floor of cat toys and various
shoes.) I’ve gotten smarter, and feel quali-
fied to offer the following advice:
1. Always clear the floor of sharp, hard
objects.
2. Wear knee pads, elbow pads, and helmets
a la skateboarders.
3. Use the buddy system. It’s much better to
bang into another rolling body than to hit
your head (you should wear a helmet but you
won’t, will you?) on the leg of the sofa
and lie unconscious for days alone with a
fractured skull.
1. Above all, roll moderately! Your shoulders,
which take the brunt of rolling, will thank
you, and you and your friends can have many
joyous rolling sessions per issue.
2. Vary your rolling with other appropriate
activities, such as slapping your knee.
(Avoid splitting your side!)
There’s my two cents. Let’s roll ‘em, Dave!
--David Hilton
PC # 6 arrived today. Again a delight: in
fact there are no words for it! What amazes me
is that you can, and DO, keep it up. You seem
to be branchiung out to new areas of stylistic
depiction, & that seems both good & excitingt.
The simple & clear line drawings in THEY FLEE
FROM ME, while being more “abstract” are no
less effective. I do prefer the more detailed
workings, as in THE WOODSPURGE (a poem I had
never read), especially the 1st & 3rd frame on
the 2nd page of that poem. (“My eyes, wide
open, had the run” hits the nail on its pro-
verbial head!) Also, most happy you illus-
trated my suggestion THEY FLEE FROM ME. I’ve
alwaysw been mind-boggled by that poem…
If I have a chance to teach poetry in my
High School classes, I will surely use yr
PRUFROCK (to complement the original text, and
some others). I may bet some flak from the
regular teachers, but--I’m temporary at best.
Cultureal sabotage is one of my most passionate
concerns, and where better to start than with
kids who are bored with school & would rather
be roller-skating or playing basketball. Your
comics are perfect for this purpose…
--Darrell Gray
Each issue seems to surpass the last in
some way. Keep it up. We want more. I took
one to work & found it to be totally access-
ible, although some didn’t understand that
you didn’t write the poems. They thought “She
Walks in Beauty Like the Night” was your
greatest work. I couldn’t say any different.
I’m looking at your cross-word puzzle. I
don’t know if you’ll get an entry from me. So
far I’ve got one answer, & I’m not too sure
about that one. Keep on confusing, abusing,
& maybe even amusing the muse.
--Steve Toth
Early on in Jan. I sent you a check for $4
for poetry comics 1-3 by the illustrious Dave
Morice. So far I ain’t seen either da comics
or my cancelled checfk. Did you folks ever get
my request & dough? Did mentioning I was a
friend of Woessner’s and Hilton’s get my
message pitched in the circular file? Do the
White Sox have a prayer in ’80?
I have heard veritable sagas about these
masterpieces, and I feel deprived that my
little irises have yet to lay themselves on
them. Postal system being what it is, it
wouldn’t surprise me if the request never got
there. Drop me a line. If I don’t get some
real Kulcha soon, I may be forced to go steal
James Merrill’s ouija board. Despareate men
say desperate things. Let me know the scoop.
--David Clewell
once again you’ve struck a popular chord
with your poetry concepts. Poetry Comics are
totally accessible and “pop”--the exact com-
mon denominator to reach a disinterested
American mainstream. Imagine them going over
great in a class of surly 4th graders. PITS
(Poetry-in-the-schools) poets should benefit
from this technique tremendously. Of course
you might end up with a whole generation of
cartoonist poets, but why not, I’ve heard
that anything goes in the future. …I hope
the issues keep coming. They keep me informed.
--Pat Nolan
***
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWERS
Finally, for the poetry-jaded comes Poetry
Comics, good-natured trashings of poems by
Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, and
W.C. Williams rendered in comic strip form.
Plath’s old man and W.C.’s wheelbarrow will
never be the same. Other poets should get the
Morice treatment. One hopes a sequel is on
the way.
--Eric Baizer, Gargoyle #14
* * *
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-8, Apr 80)
I’ve put ou on our exchange list. Keep the
comics coming. I enjoy the certain levity they
bring to what too often is the deadly serious\
business of Literature!
--Len Fulton, Small Press Review
I have two hats, my sleeping bonnet in which
I write my poems, and my fascist general’s cap
in which I discuss ways for force-feeding
everyone poetry.
I do hope some day to do a largish magazine,
and I hope you’ll be able to contribute – but
the paroxysms of Nazism have abated just now,
so I wouldn’t send me anything for awhile.
You should collect these in a book. The let-
ters column reflects the enthusiasm I think
anybody’s feel.
Sieg heil
--Michael Andre, Unmuzzled Ox
Enjoyhed No. 7, POETRY COMICS. Cover was bril-
liant piece of lujnacy. Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
was freaky piece of work…
--Jim McCurry, Delirium
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWERS
“Abuse the Muse!” urges Poetry Comics, now up
to No. 4. Editor Dave Morice mockingly illus-
trates the great Romantics,
half in tribute, half in pro-
test against academic mysti-
fication. His art, unfortu-
nately, ranges from poor to
mediocre…
Morice sent us a gift sub-
scription to his Poetry Com-
ics along with TheCutist An-
thology. Bob Hickey sent, with Laundrey Room
Poems, a gift membership in the National Rifle
Association. We suggest Morice and Hickey com-
bine resources to blow both books out their
arses.
--SAMISDAT #92, review
I’m pleased to inform you that I featured
POETRY COMICS No. 7 on my April 25th telecast
over MCAC-TV. POETRY COMICS has got to be one
of the more novel & original concepts in both
graphic illustration and literary good times
that I’ve had the good fortune to come across
in some time. My personal favorite in this
issue was “My Mistress” illustrating Shake-
speare’s Sonnet 130 with all the grace and
delicate precision of my corner grocerystore
meat counter. I loved it! I plan on framing
the single sheet & mounting it above my closet
door (all great loves do best in one’s closet).
--James A. Cox, The Madison Reviewq of Books
Loved P.C. #7. the best to date. front and
back cover ideas the work of a genius.
--Opal Louis Nations
All morning I have been staring at a dead
plant, right in front of my typewriter. I
wanted to write a poem, then it dawned on me
that the mail might have arrived. And, sure
enuf, there was PC #7. Hope you are in good
health and are able to continue the grand
tradition of making poetry fun in both a
graphic and verbal way, which you yourself
have started… Love the letters column: ie:
responses. Phoebe-Lou Adams from ATLANTIC
MONTHLY who says “We don’t quite know what to
make of POETRY COMICS” either lacks a sense of
humor or takes her life too seriously: I don’t
know which is the worse. It seems all too
appropriate that she is working for the mag.
I loved particularly the HERRICK poem (the
illustrations were dynamite) and A POISON TREE
(tho therein you are waxing a bit abstract).
The drawings were great, but somewhat evasive.
--Darrell Gray
Poetry Comics is one of the most enjoyable
jobs that I print. Here’s a little contribu-
tion for the pickle jar.
--Lynda Raybourn, Copy Center 3, Jefferson Bldg.
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-9, May 80)
* * *
I really dig this abusing the muse stuff. In-
teresting in that the attitude is not too far
off from Dada that is making (locally anyway) a
kind of comeback. So, in order to recognize your
artistic achievement plus continuing to receive
more of the same I offer the meager sum of $5.00
American to you. Live Long & Perspire!
--Pat Dooley
We all found your Poetry Comics delightful.
Thank you so much for sending us this latest
issue.
--Juris Jurjevics, Editor-in-Chief, The Dial Press
Here, as if it were foretold to you in a
dream, are all my clams in one bucket. Still
can’t understand how my last missive didn’t
reach your coaxing fingers. Maybe the Poetry Mob
is platooning goons to discourage the exchange
of these incendiary materials. We’ll never read
about it in the Times, I’m thinkin’.
This check, I realize, puts me on your life-
time list – one I hope you don’t share with
unethical societies and brotherhoods who somehow
on their own find their way into the long hall-
way of my mailbox. But those comics – oh, those
sweet sweet comics – now, they can kick their
shoes off and drink my beer.
--David Clewell
I’ve been through a good 90 days of sorcerer-
retribution, karmic-backfire (right, writing,
arm) for two months, then fire ((!)) in my house
wrecking books, paintings, walls, etc. Now –
back in repaired, strangely vacant, ‘home’.
Last issue of Comics knocked me out, loved
cover, blake, Poetrivia. Here’s 5, keep em coming.
Oh, on submissions, how about YUCATAN from now
out-of-print 1st book GUITAR AGAINST THE WALL?
It’s the only poem of mine where I can imagine a
Morice to every line (chicken in every pot?
Hoover of West Branch). Do you have it?
--David Gitin
The 10th ACTUALIST CONVENTION, just over this
past weekend, went great!...2 full days of
poetry, dance, theater, music, mime, film,
video, & much more. It was the biggest turn-out
ever. THE ACTUALIST BOOGIE BAND that provided
the finale for the first night knocked everyone
off their feet--Those who were previously
grounded quickly soared & hit the ceiling. We
still have bits of hair & eye-lashes to clean
off the ceiling, but that’s the price you pay
for turning people on.
Right on “the heels” of The AC came PC#8. The
John Clare poem knocked me out! But my favorite
in the issue was “712” BY Ms. Dickinjson. Who is
this creep from SAMISDAT #92? who says “His art,
unfortunately, ranges from poor to mediocre…”
My take is that the guy is trying to play base-
ball on a football field. He and Phoebe-Lou
Adams (from the ATLANTIC MURKY) would make a
great pair. Even ole Ez said the last thing we
need in approaching “Literature” is solemnity.
--Darrell Gray
We really dug Poet’s “Mental-Block” Remover
on issue #7. If youo have any more picture/
explanations, would you be interested in sub-
mitting it/them for KAYAK?
--Marjorie Simon, Kayak
Thanks as ever for 8th issue of your charming
mag…
--Robert Creeley
In answer to your question on how I’m going
to use POETRY COMICS on my periodic poetry
shows on MCAC-TV I use the drawings as graphics
for the camera while reading the poems as a
voice over. Simple, but effective.
It’s always a pleasure to give over air time
to a new idea. And new idea is a working
definition for your little magazine.
--James A. Cox, Editor
The Madison Review of Books
When are we (your readers) going to see a
Dave Morice poem illustrated? (Joyce Holland
would be interesting also--esp. since she’s
concrete to begin with.) We just got your
latest and of course both read it right away.
--Sheila Toth
Thanks for the Comics! Yeah, here’s the
latest. I remember this article on you in Coda
a million years ago…alphabet man hits the
streets or something. Good luck with this
latest project.
--Rick Peabody, Gargoyle
Joel Oppenheimer called last night & in the
course of our conversation mentioned your
series of poetry Comics. If I’d send you 5
bucks, he said, you’d send me 4 issues…
Joel’s recommendation’s good enough for me.
He mentioned in particular your comics based
on works of Thoreau, Blake, Emerson, & the
Rubaiyat. Has anybody attempted converting
modern poetry into comic book form? I can see
some Wallace Stevens comics, or maybe even one
based on Charles Olson’s The Kingfishers. The
Waste Land would be a great one, don’t you
think?... See you in the funny papers.
--Tom Patterson, Pynyon Press
Well, I’m delighted (about winning the
Crossword Contest)--
Seem to recall that a couple of things did
send me to the Library--tho’, obviously, what
w/ those 5 incorrect sqaures, research shdve
been even more extensive).
Thank you for the check. & I think I’d like
to have the Oxford Book of English verse--the
American’s even more aggravating, & besides,
duplicated by the Norton anthologies.
I’m glad I won the Crossword Puzzle Contest!
(Greg and I that is.) Received the Almanac and
comics in good order. You have the touch of a
genius fund-raiser. When I get rich, I’ll be a
benefactor. Meantime, please wait for my five
bucks as I’m overdrawn. Poetry Comics are not.
Cheers!
--Martha King
…Thank you! It’s always a crazy pleasure,
better than the NY Times crossword puzzles.
--Shelley Kraut
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWERS
This guy’s got a great idea: illustrating
famous poems. Sound familiar? His latest
features Ashbery, Ginsberg, and Creeley.
--Mike Ellsworth, Editor, Plainspeak
Many thanks for all the poultry comix each &
every one of which is a knockout, usually in a
different sense on each of the (many) re-read-
ings! And enclosed are our latest (& it looks
like probably our last) books, which I can only
hope delight you as much as your use of the post
office has delighted us! (Have I been Skinner-
ized by PC’s Letters section into utter blurb
consciousness?
…I really don’t know exactly which agent you
should try--but wd suggest you ask one of the
more published & easterly of the Famous Contrib-
utors to the Letters column (!) for *agent and
*sympathetic editor connections. Short of which
take a look at the Agents list in Literary Mar-
ketplace. It seems to me that there are two
equally good approaches to “marketingt” the
comics: #1) this is exactly what the Education
Establishment needs (and pays fortunes for) to
get kids excited about reading in general &
literature (poetry) specifically. THIS IS NO
JOKE: there’s a HUGE market for hair-brained
bozoid “Words Are Fun” pseudo-textbooks whereas
I THINK YOU HAVE THE GENUINE ARTICLE. This
audience is where the money would be & perhaps
a textbook publisher would realize that. (I
won’t recommend text pubs--they’re mostly alike
anyhow; what you need is a specific, sympathetic
editor). #2 I think a sharp editor/publisher
could make a book of PC sell like crazy--as a
“whacko” item in trade paperback format, of
which plenty are published & sold every year
(xmas usually), but almost none of which have
the solid (if wild) attractions of your comics.
#3 of course: you could do BOTH of the above…
William Burroughs (& his secretary, James
Grauerholz) were over for dinner last night. A
great evening. I think William is one of life’s
born storytellers--his recollection of watching
a soap opera on tv isnearly as riveting as
Naked Lunch. One of life’s truly civilized &
wonderful humans. (The business occasion for the
get-together was his signing about 400 books:
which he did as naturally & efficiently as a
bird flies, with nary a p[ause for small sip of
weak vodka tonic!)
Lucy & I naturally have mixed feelings about
quitting publishing whenever we get together
with a great writer, expecially when his works
are as under-appreciated as William’s--let alone
Keith Abbott’s--or Anselm’s--the list goes on.
But finally we had to admit that it didn’t
feel like “publishing” when only 300 copies of
a book sold, after the tremendous amount of time &
money was invested… The demise of the indepen-
dent bookstore & the utter commercialization of
the ones left…added to the astonishing erasure
of real literacy in the country at large…makes
our ambitions practically quixotic. So (at least
for the moment) we’re on to other things. E.G.:
a 3-week space-warp to Hawaii next month…
--George Mattingly, Blue Wind Press
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-10, Jul 80)
* * *
We have enjoyed No. 7 of Poetry Comics. The
combination of the 2 forms is really not as
strange as it might seem; actually, the 2 are
natural allies as you obviously understand.
…enclosed are a couple of my own poems.
Being raised on comics, I can’t resist the urge
to try you.
--David Childers
Thanks for the Poetry Comics and the note! I
don’t know when I’ll read again in Iowa City--
The Sheriff jas been alerted & I probably
wouldn’t make it into town.
--Robert Bly
Under separate cover I’m sending you a sample
copy of CJ (then, it was called X a journal of
the arts). After our fiction issue, we are doing
a GENERAL INFORMATION issue on the arts and lit-
erature and I’d like to ask if we could use your
Poetrivia (PC 7) in it. Please rsvp as soon as
possible as the issue is jamming up. So far,
interviews with Ascher/Straus and Hugh Fox;
lists of poets according to schools by Richard
Peabody; favorite books; neglected authors
lists; etc. Your gathering of general info
would work perfectly in the issue.
Your comix are amazing; where’d you ever come
up with the idea? The Stan Lee of literature.
--George Myers, Jr., Cumberland Journal
Many thanks for “Poetry Comics.” Very enjoy-
able. I especially like the Poet’s Mental-Block
Remover & “My Mistress.” Did I read somewhere
your “A cigarette is a glass of milk?” That’s a
kind of line Benjamin Peret would have wor-
shipped. I love it too.l Do send other issues if
you can.
--Charles Simic
I bite. Here’s eight more dollars. Mark it
lifetime, & since I’m 26, and Poetry Comics is
forever, we should have long correspondences.
--Bob Holman
Your “Poetry Comics” is an interesting con-
cept--but all the drawings look the same, no
variety, etc. Though you do indicate that you,
personally, draw each of them--I’d think a
number of cartoonists would add some much
needed variety/appeal to your magazine.
As for exchanging*--TM doesn’t engage in
any such programs. As for giving away copies,
I will do that to selected people upon re-
ceipt of an SASE of 9x12, with 80¢ postage
affixed. Send an SASE and I’ll return the
latest issue to you.
Thanks for letting me read your mag--I’ll
list it in the next issue.
*This may well account for our large cir-
culation.
--Gary Lagier, The Literary Monitor
Hey, once again many thanks for the PC’s,
I enjoy every single panel, and the variety
of your drawing style is terrific. Also
thanks for finding inspiration in the “Haiku
Issue” of the end, a magazine that has, sadly,
come and gone. I doubt that it’ll be revived
either. I had a “final” issue planned (#10)
but ran afoul of the anti-mimeo art & funky
mag factions of the grant funneling organi-
zations. Incidently, I loved the fuzziness
of your note on my magazine (PC9)--done in
the true “funky” mimeo fashion. Also loved
“Haiku” Maze, though have yet to try my hand
at it. Perhaps illustrating haiku by Basho,
Issa, or Kerouac might be in order. Maybe
not. Constantly digging the whole “idea” of
your poetry comix. Was always impressed by
the Brainard et al. collab comic books--C
Comics, f’rinstance--and your works rank up
along side--a nice variation on the idea to
say the least. The Pablo/Emily pairing, by
the way, is ample proof of your genius, your
“pop” genius. Also the Tender Buttons--right
on. Don’t work too hard, pace yourself, hire
help, get tons of money, but don’t poop out
on us.
--Pat Nolan
The Poetry Comics are great! Yes, send
more! I think they prove something but I
can’t figure out what.
--Donald Hall
mostly a bomb, but it’s as good a chance as
any to say hello & thanks for thinking of me
& you’ve done better, by gum, and will again,
and what would be the harm in giving Ez’s
words (PC 2), I mean really, eh?
Lord, trying to be funny is the longest
weird longshot, but it’s all I try too,
lately. Is Knott’s secret that that’s not
what he tries?
--George Starbuck
all the stuff is lovely. i can’t believe
you’re doing it in iowa city--the heart of
the enemy! jad seem the poetry city button at
buffalo last year--on, i think allan kornblum,
toothpaste press maybe?--buthe didn’t have
any extras.
i enclose my shortest poem (“ars longa/vida
blue”), made into a button by terry smith of
rocky mount nc, for delivery of a paper on
baseball literature. wear it proudly. nobody
out there will know what it means, at least
on campus…
lem looks forward to the haiku machine, as
do i…
--Joel Oppenheimer
The comix arrived in yesterday’s mail, much
to my delight. My wife Ellen was in stitches
over your rendition of “Prufrock” in #2 and
Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy” in #1. Those were my
favorites too, along with Pope’s dog collar &
Pound’s 2-line metro station imagism. The “Ana-
gramarama” in whatever issue that was, waS
nice too. Your cartoon work reminds me of Mark
Alan Stamaty, currently my fave comic strip
artist, whose work you’ve probably seen in the
Village Voice, but you’ve certainly got your
own individual train going here and these
comics--very unique stuff, & I hope to be see-
ing more. In the meantime here’s your copy of
Red Hand Book, as requested… I’ll be pleased
if you enjoy this anthology half as much as I
enjoyed your comics. I’m now in the process of
collecting material for RHB II, scheduled for
publication in later December, and I wonder if
you’d be interested in contributing a poem/
comic strip. Since we have in mind getting the
book out on the occasion of Charles Olson’s
70th birthday, it would be especially appro-
priate to have a Morice-style rendition of one
of his poems…
--Tom Patterson
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-11, Aug 80)
* * *
What a great birthday prez--Poetry Comics for
life! I’ve the whole bunch in hand & am pleasur-
ing myself shamefully with them. Happy Days!
--Ron Bayes
I’ve been enjoying the Comics, which are a
fine madness indeed, but I’m not sure about
running any in HL. They seem to really stand on
their own, in proper comic book size. But the
idea is intriguing.
--Robert Hershon, Hanging Loose
I can’t understand the people who see what you
are doing as only satire. Some of your readings
are brilliant critiques, with the added advan-
tage that you are saving poetry from the aca-
demic taxidermists. Please continue. Please
expand. Please to “The Emperor of Ice Cream”.
--Rodger Kamenetz
I would love it.
I don’t have anything unpublished that I want
to publish. The house is absolutely full of
partly-assembled poems, possibly the ingredients
of four books…and nothing finished. Strange
business!
In lots of ways, I would prefer it to be an
old poem. I wonder if you would think about a
terribly old poem here, an anthology piece of
mine, toward the beginning of this book, called
My Son, My Executioner. It might lend itself to
illustration! Or The Sleeping Giant. Or what
have you? Keep the book (The Alligator Bride).
--Don Hall
“To (True Romances) Celia” in PC 10 is a true
gem. I can imagine Peter Sellers (the late)
playing the lead male role.
--Opal Louis Nations
Thank you for the Comics. Do choose something
from one of my books.
--John Cage
We received the latest issue yesterday.
Enclosed are the latest issues from myself.
Being off work is terrific for getting things
done. You noted that your drawings got more
detailed, I’ve found my poems becoming longer
& also that I was working on several things
in my head at the same time. Amazing after a
couple of years at full time jobs. I hope you
like the poem SIC which I’ve been working on
for about 3 years. Also the poem TABULA RASA
which was written at HAMBURG INN when you
were saying how easy it is to write a poem &
to prove it we both set out to write one im-
mediately using the same first line. I saw
yours in QUICKSAND & just found the notebook
page after it being lost for years…
Please consider the entire batch here as
submissions to your doggedly fantastic mag.
It has been my fantasy since issue one to
have you “do” me up right. These works are
longer than usual for me, but you might be
able to use a stanza and & call it “FROM--”
--Steve Toth
Your comics a great source of joy around
here. We admit a preference for your treat-
ment of the classics anyway.
--Jim Haining, Salt Lick
Just got PC 10 this morning. Your vision
of Darrell’s “The Poem Machine” is brilliant.
And the full-page takes on Browning, Hopkins,
and Blake are marvelous. Loved “To Celia.”
One of the great numbers of PC!
What do you think Reagan will do about PC
after he’s elected?
--David Hilton
I don’t know what of my work you would
want to do in one of your issues, & wouldn’t
want to pick out anything myself. Give me an
idea of what you might like to do and I’ll
give you an answer.
--James Dickey
I get a laugh out of your comics but also I
have reservations. The thing is, as with
parodies, a humorous angle on a non-humorous
work of art may have the unfortunte effect
of spoilingt the original--i.e., one is liable
to always have the recollection of the jokey
version looming up and obstructing any fur-
there receptivity to some beautiful poem
or painting. Parodies of bad art are instructive
as well as funny--but one doesn’t want to
de-bunk something which was not bunkum in the
first place. Your comics aren’t exactly
parodies but the same thing applies. Before
you go ahead & ‘do’ one of mine (old or new)
I’d appreciate it if you’d let me know your\
point of view on this matter.
The Poem-Machine seems to me to work per-
fectly because the poem…--, it seems to
have been written expressly to be so illus-
trated. I don’t mean that negatively.
--Denise Levertov
Muchas gracias for #9: loved format of
Blake--have arrived at similar ratio for
image/words (one line per full page) in at-
tempting slightly RAUNCH SIZZLE-O treatment
of early Mallarme “Black Lass” (Une Negresse).
Actually you hit upon a lovely variation of
style/visual texture--“A Song” with cross-
hatchings, so deliberate, and the brush draw-
ing “How Do I Love Thee?” so… Chinese
Chinese and deliberately unpremediated? Who
knows.
--John Batki
How can I thank you--let me count the ways!
PC #10 arrived today, and I am overjoyed. Never
in my wildest dreams did I anticipate you illus-
trating one of my poems, and you did it beauti-
fully. The rest of the COMICS were dynamite
also--you hardly ever let us down. Thanks also
for mentioning the rebirth of SUCTION magazine
and the forthcoming anthology of “heteronyms.”
Certainly Joyce Holland will be included, as
she is a pure example of the genre. In a time
when contemporary poetry is dominated by either
evocative slush or “contemplative purity”… a
real return to the purity of Joy is deeply
needed… The obligation of the poet is NOT to
tell the Truth (a capital T), but to make the
truth interesting. I appreciate the fact that
this is what you do in the Comics.
Finally, where the hell is the head of Gary
Lagier, of THE LITERARY MONITOR, who states in
the letters column: “all the drawings look the
same, no variety…” Pat Nolan’s letter
debunks this accusation, and I agree whole-
heartedly with him…
Don’t let the constipated academics get you
down…
--Darrell Gray
I’m still doing a few comics with my brother
Rick. We’re working on a 100-pager that we
hope to sell to a big-time publisher--Rick has
a couple ideas about doing poetry in comic
form--so maybe you’ll be hearing from us one
of these days!
--Tom Veitch
It really is – or they really are – funny.
Especially of course the ones from the old
masters/mistresses. who today would dare to
come up with the wonderful –
‘That’s my Duchess painted on the wall’
Certainly not the hoaxy Ms. Holland.
What about some from Marlowe (whoswe death
was a hoax) ‘Holla, Ye pampered Jades of Asia/
What can ye draw but twenty miles a day?’
or Webswter (1602-24) after those dates there
are no traces to be found of his existencee –
but he continued to write… from Malfi:
‘We are merely the stars’ tennis balls,
struck and bandied/Which way please them’ or
‘When I look into the fish-ponds in my
garden,/Methinks I see a thiung arm’d with a
rake/That seems to strike at me.’
oh well – I’m sure you have too many ideas
anyway –
--Susan Howe
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWERS
POETRY COMICS, by no. 7, has become a cult.
Considering what else has, that ain’t no
compliment.
--SAMISDAT #98, review
Abuse the Muse is what it’s called. And
according to David Morice, it’s fun. It’s
also brilliant, dnjoyable, readable, enter-
taining and humorous. Putting such classics
as e.e. cummings, Sylvia Plath, Robert
Frost, W.C. Williams, and others, to the pen,
Morice renders their words into magic cartoon-
like characters, which come to life and run--
yes run--off the page at you. Excellent for
teachers in elementary schools who would like
to get the idea across that poetry is fun…
Subscribe/order now and “Abuse the Muse!”
--CONTACT II, review
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-12, Nov 80)
* * *
My father, Tom Clark, has given me several of
your Poetry Comics to read. I* enjoyed “Rose
Aylmer” (in no. 10) very much. You seem to have
much the same opinions and ideas of poetry as
I do!
--Juliet Clark
*Whereas I particularly enjoyed “I Am Not a
Woman” in #11.
--Tom Clark
Much liked the Hollo you chose to do in last
PC, incidentally & how you did it. My favorites
still are the POEM Machine & TENDER BUTTONS
sequence (in fact, wldn’t mind reprinting lat-
ter if it’d be okay w/you). Saw Levertov’s
point but doubt if great art can ever be over-
whelmed by a parody (& in many cases, what yr
doing isn’t really a parody but an extension,
an elaboration, a new work as arts often play
off each other--Jess Collins playing off Dick
Tracy in last SOUP for instance). I suppose
it’s a rare feat when comics & poems completely
jell, just as when poetry & jazz truly jell, or
when even poetry by itself truly jells, but is
that any reason not to dare the risk? “Only
those who attempt the absurd are capable of
achieving the impossible” as Unamuno wrote.--
--Steve Abbott, Soup
You are industrious the way ants are. Friends
of mine collect instances of homemade signs
using quote-marks. What I learn from your maga-
zine is not so much what single lines in boxes
do, but how odd and interesting a line is in a
balloon--said from somewhere. Space or direc-
tion as ascription. I enclose my invidious
drawing of Diane Wakoski. Anch’io sono pittore.
--Gerald Burns
God only knows I’ve been meaning to write to
you for… er… some time now: to thank you
for all the “Poetry Comics”. I admire very much
your spontaneity and energy. I admire, I envy,
and I thank you.
--Joe Brainard
I am only a young pillow and have been edu-
cated at home, so many of these poems are not
familiar to me, wuch as Joyce Holland’s “Ubble
Snop,” and William Wordsworth’s “I Wandered
Lonely As a Cloud” (to mention two of my fav-
orites), but I have enjoyed all four issues
that have come to my attention very much
indeed. (Especially since I am otherwise not
allowed to read comic books.)
Do you likie haikus? I hope so, because I am
sending you my first book of poetry, HAIKUS
OF A PILLOW published by Bellevue Press. If
there are any you can’t understand, let me
know and I’ll explain them. Poems often are
hard to understand. One time I read a poem
that said “Garlic and sapphires in the mud
clot the bedded axle tree.” Really. I wish
you’d make that into a comic strip, and then
maybe younger readers such as I could under-
stand it.
Tom Disch, with whom I share my apartment,
has asked me to ask you to send him copies of
Poetry Comics that he doesn’t have, and is
sending a check to you (inside my book). He
likes PC too, but he says he wants to write
to you himself when he’s not so busy.
Warmest regards,
--Mother
First a word about No. 11. In wildness is
the preservation of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18.
All frames are great, but I would single out
for mention a few: the exploded frame that
doth shew how “summer’s lease hath all too
short a date”; the simple but effective
Cyclops wherein “the eye of heaven shines”;
the indescribable frame for “thy eternal
summer”; and a frame that surely bears out
Rodger Kamenetz’s comment about “brilliant
critiques”--“thou wander’st,” spoken by a
Pegasus wandering like Sidney’s poesy within
the zodiac of its own wit.
I am enclosing a few postdating my switch
from cabbie to English instructor at Carl
Sandburg College (it’s true), a community
college situated allegorically bgeside Lake
Storey near Galesburg, Illinois.
--Jim McCurry, Delirium
…Speaking of 11, this issue is tremendous!
Steve Toth’s Zen-like realization “About Yes &
No” struck the depth of NANCY CONSCIOUSNESS in
me. In 4 brief frames we have a realization of
samadi: both funny & instructive, as the Zen &
Sufi masters would conjoin them.
Your visual orchestration of Billy’s #18
(Shakespeare) is, to my mind, one of the best
to date. Referring to David Hilton’s comment
about Mr. RayGuns possibility of election: May
a wild mongoose urinate on his Ultra-Dry. In
any case, I’m sure the Comics will continue.
Sonnet 18 is the STAR WARS of poetry!
But back to Earth, I must take objection to
Denise Levertov’s letter. On the one hand she
admits that she laughed at the Comics, then
had “reservations.” “A humorous angle on a
non-humorous work of art may have the unfortu-
nate effect of spoiling the original.” Her
comment on my poem (as you depicted it) was
totally off-base. I wrote the poem as an “ex-
ercise” back in 1969, & it was purely verbal
experiment:P I just wanted to see how often I
could use the word machine in a poem. As to
“spoiling the original” (ie. illustrating the
poems as you do), she seems to think you are
out to “de-bunk” poems. This implies that your
Comics are a kind of Primer, & not at all in-
volved in a retrospective vision--a second
take on words in action we have all too long
taken for granted.
If poetry can corrupt the youth, as Levertov
suggests, all power to it! We need more (and
God knows they do) than to read the words, tho
they often suffice.
Yours for a Very Visual Year--
--Darrell Gray
#11 is a treat again, what you do with Dickin-
son is so beauitiful & crazy, just like her, it
matches her genius for pure American styhle and
meaning and eccentricity (which might be what
Denise Levertov is afraid of, as expressed in
her cautions in her letter, afraid of you turn-
ing something “serious” into something forever
unserious…give us a break Denise, we can still
read…most of what you do Dave only heightens
the beauty & power of the language in the best
work & gently, sometimes almost childishly, in-
nocently pulls the coat off the wrok that has
either taken itself too seriously or been sub-
jected to the shallow reverence of those who
think they’re the keepers of the flame when
theyre only managing to keep their own torches
glowing from the fire of the geniuses they ex-
ploit & misinterpret & pass on as their personal
possessions to the unsuspecting etc. etc. –
actually Levertov once visited a workshop at
Iowa when I was there & after commenting on
several poems on a worksheet, including I think
one by Darrell Gray & one by Ray DiPalma, skipped
the only one left, which happened to be one of
my homages to the love-of-language-especially-
the-lower-middle-class-Americanism-&-romanti-
cisms-that-first-energized-me-before-I-was-
formally-introduced-to-“culture”-etc & she re-
acted to someone’s pointing this out to her,
her skipping my work, with “Oh that. That’s not
poetry!” & I could only think, in me ‘umble way,
what it’s not is it’s not English or Spanish or
French or Russian or anything outside or influ-
enced overwhelmingly by work outside the USA &
she’s too much of outside the USA to dig it,
anway, she should welcome whatever attention
you might give her work. As to what you did in
#11 with contemporary stuff, you made new work
out of every one of those excerpts including
mine & I’m “totally grateful”…if I might add
to everyone else’s please you should get some
TerenceWinch, or Tim Dlugos, & DiPalma would
be a challenge & a treat, Robert Slater has
done some short works that are so crisp & accu-
rate you couldn’t miss…& what about Alice
Notley?...Zukofsky & O’Hara?...how bout Patti
Smith’s stuff, she can be pretty unintentionally
hilarious too in her seriousness, but pure Amer-
icano despite the Frenchified d.d.d.d.d.illusions
…hey, get Dylan’s ass a little, or check out
some of Van Morrison’s sometime genius strokes,
imagine Lennon’s “Imagine” as a cartoon…shit
Dave, yhou’ll have us all making endless lists
again, what if he did…Berrigan, Kelly, Dorn,
Warsh, DiPrima, Schuyler, Elmslie, Whalen, Bly,
the prospect of seeing you doing stuff I’m inter-
ested in or can see as potentially a goof.
--Michael Lally
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-13, Jan 81)
* * *
I just remarked to Darrell Gray in a letter
that the COMIX are keeping us all in touch (the
“POETRY COMMUNITY”) as we all read eachother’s
letters in your letter column…
--Sheila Toth
I’ll take a lifetime subscription to Poetry
Comics in exchange for a possible business
transaction which only you can effect. I would
like to purchase the original of one of the
pictures in your current issue (no. 12). This
is the central panel of the cartoon strip illus-
trating “If Only” by Ruth Krauss. Please convey
this information to the artist and ask what he
or she would take in payment for this extraor-
dinarily affecting work. If this purchase can
bge negotiated for a reasonable amount, I will be
happy to take out a lifetime sugbscription to PC.
--James Dickey
I saw Poetry Comics in Dick Higgins corres-
pondence file which he has placed in the arch-
ives. I loved it the minute I sawq it…What do
you mean by a life member? How do you arrange
this? My life or years?
--Jean Brown
I’ve had a wonderful time with Poetry Comics
#1-12--a funny, happy, inventive way of reading
poems. Much more pleasure and truth than in
nearly all the reading-in-public that is “criti-
cism.” and more fun, too, than nearly all “comix.”
For what the reader-response is worth, I enjoy
the mixing of old poetry and contemporary a
lot--would hate to see you go all onme way or the
other. And I guess most people find it hard to
resist suggesting a poem--“The Darkling Thrush”
(“An aged thrush, frail gaunt and small,/With
blast-beruffled plume,” and those opening lyres,
weakening eye, etc. seem promising)?
Anyway, and mainly, I’m glad to see you taking
poems out of church in this friendly, appealing
way, and glad to have caught up with it.
--Robert Pinsky
My reservations about comics (& indeed about
other kinds of illustrations too, though I
adore some of the older & even some more
recent children’s book illustrations) are un-
changed--but go ahead & ‘do’ one of mine if
you want to, I guess it can’t hurt. I do
mildly enjoy yr. publication (i.e. not wildly
but quite.) And don’t want to be a spoil
sport. With good wishes,
--Denise Levertov
Got yr address from Bill Berkson w/raves.
Would you like to Xchange Buzzard for Poetry
Comix? See we are bothin Telephone this
issue. Loved yr cover--
--Dotty LeMieux, Turkey Buzzard
What a dog I am! It’s hard to explain why
heretofor I’ve not written because it is not
from lack of being an avid Poetry Comics read-
er, cause I tis. Could be because I’ve never
written to any comic series before though I
will admit an affair with the Marvel Comics
group. Probably the reason is that I write
letters for a living and have a horrible time
doing it for my own. Rochelle and I are run-
ning the Monday poetry series at St. Marks
which is a lot of fun. A terrific new poet
read last night, Fleming Meeks, by name and I
bet you could do something with his work. #12
looks great in fact the one liners are some of
my favorites ever! Even the pages of one lines
make whole senses…
Lots of babies and kids in NYC poetry cir-
cles now. Parties more fun with scampering
people bending your knees. Aliah, our 2 ½ year
old, came into the kitchen with a toy skillet
filled with magnetic alphabet letters, he\
said, “Cook A B C!” thought you’d like that.
I was sitting in on a workshop given by
Maureen Owen and she passed out (!) Poetry
Comics for everyone to look at. An entire
room full of people reading the PC gave me a
vision: why don’t you tackle the Norton
Anthology? You could do more good than all
those Poets in all those Schools--purty soon
they’d be gassing about poetry in the teachers
lounge.
--Bob Rosenthal, Frontward Books
#12 as striking & inventive as usual. Especi-
ally adore “A Breath of Applause.” I think yhou
should reduce that lady & her breath & get a
rubber stamp made. Also like Popeye (now playing
on Boylston in Boston). As for the cover drawing
of famous poets my immediate thought was the
candidates for the new Reagan cabinet. They
all somehow look sleezy if not to say shifty,--
I wouldn’t trust any one of ‘em with a monosyl--
labic sentence… The Cage piece is nice. Re-
minds me of some of Themerson’s work… You’ll
be putting out a P.C. anthology soon for all
those folks who want a complete in one binder??!
--Opal Louis Nations, Strange Faeces
You really did a swell job with your Cage
text--bravo bravo bravo…
Seems I’ll be coming to Iowa in mid-April for
a conference on the avant-garde at the Univer-
sity--something Stephen Foster is organizing,
and judging from his high batting average it
should be quite excitingk, whether or not there’s
any such thing as an avant-garde (maybe there is
a plurality of ‘em, but I still hate that word).
--Dick Higgins, Something Else Press
Thanks for P-C., enclosed is $ 10 toward a
lifetime subscription (more to come later)…
Cinda Kornblum sent me some pages from A Visit
from St. Alphabet. To be frank, I was floored by
how lovely they were. Your line drawings with the
faded-looking colors pick up on a tradition in
illustration that has been lost since Tenniel’s
Alice. I can’t see why it wouldn’t become just
as classic.
--Jim Hanson, In The Light
I spent too much “dinero” on zerox, etc. for
the St. Mark’s workshop & have used up (already)
my allotment of “extra” funds. So what I did was
to take all the Poetry Comix I had & distribute
them to my workshnop, (however I have about 45
people in my workshop so only every other person
got one). So now I don’t have any more Poetry
Comix….sob…sob. & Since I can’t live without
my P.Comix to peruse, I should like to purchase
a “set” for myself. How much is it? If it’s more
than $45 – I fucked up. Ulp. Hope not. Let me
know soon. I’m perishing in sobriety!
--Maureen Owen, Telephone
A WORD FROM THE REVIEWERS
Among little magazines, Poetry Comics is
unique, to say the least. The contrast between
it and Blue Buildings is--well--apparent. While
Blue Buildings is a subdued, exquisitely printed
showcase for contemporary poetry, Poetry
Comics is a wildly enthusiastic display of
one man’s whimsy. That man is Dave Morice of
Iowa City who, as editor, publisher & author
of Poetry Comics, invites readers to suggest
poems they would like to see illustrated.
Morice will give any poem a try. If the illus-
trations work, he prints them. Morice’s aim,
as the covers of Poetry Comics suggest, is to
“abuse the muse.” The results are witty and
sometimes thoughtful but always irreverent.
Some issues are taken up with the illustration
of one poem (The Love Song of J. Alfred Pru-
frock) while others contain 3 or 4 short
poems. Authors treated (or mistreated, depend-
ing on your viewpoint) range from Sir Thomas
Whatt to Ezra Pound. Some of the illustrated
poems are only silly. But others, such as
Thooreau’s “I Am a Parfcel of Vain Strivings,”
are hilarious.
Whatever one’s opinion of Morice’s approach
to poetry, there is no quibbling bout his
abilities as a comic strip artist. He has
turned out 7 issues of this stuff and there
is little repetition in any of it. Each issue
contains some special features. “Poetrivia”
lists “notes, quotes, and anecdotes about
famous poets--all true!” “Anagramarama” (a
word that won the Oneword Poetry Contest in
Matchbook, see below) is a column of anagrams
made out of poets’ names (Walt Whitman--Law?
Haw! I’m TNT!) The “Muse’s Mailbag” is given
over to comments from interested readers.
Poetry Comics is the only magazine currently
published by Morice under his imprint, Happy
Press. He started the Happy Press some years
ago as part of his participation in the Iowa
City literary movement called Actualism. His
imprint is aptly named, for only bubbling en-
thusiasm could account for the number & vari-
ety of magazines that have issued from his
press. Happy Press has been responsible for
Gum, probably the littlest of little magazines
ever published, Matchbook, a magazine of one
word poetry, each stapled to the inside of a
matchbook, the Alphabet Anthology, a collec-
tion of one-letter poems, the Paper Comet,
a transcript of a mikle long poem and the
Cutist Anthology, a parody (of course) of
poetry movements. Poetry Comics may not be the
most cerebral poetry magazine available, but
it achieves its purpose: it is entertaining--
and it certainly abuses the muses.
--Michael Roughton, reviewer
Serials Review, vol. 6 #4
ANOTHER WORD--
We suspect Dave Morice keeps sending us
POETRY COMICS for the same reason the cat
Lorna Dee Cervantes gave us keeps proudly
gbringing home dead grasshoppers.
--SAMISDAT #102
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-14, Mar 81)
* * *
Thank you very much for sending the drawing
of the face I have come to know and love. It
more than fulfills my ex-
pectations! As soon as it
arrived I sent it by cour-
ier to Frameland, where by
now it surely has been mat-
ted and framed.
Thank you also for add-
ing my name to your lifetime subscription
list. I will be perusing each issue in search
of creatures to befriend the one I know have in
my possession.
Enclosed is a check to you for $50. I look
forward to many happy years of gazing on this
winsome visage.
--James Dickey
Thanks for thinking of me ande I enjoyed
looking at your work--you are crazy & wonder-
ful--I hope someday we will meet! All the
best!
--Dom De Luise
Poetry Comicslooks & sounds intriguing. I
especially liked the Terry-Toonish cover (#10)
as well as the Joyce Holland sham. Many dream
of pulling something like that off, ‘s a neat
trick. So, of course, I’ll swap ya for a copy
of P.C. I’ll be having a coupla new books
coming out in about a month, (I think). I
didn’t even know I was mentioned in Heavy
Metal until I started receiving requests in
the mailfor Nart. ‘Twas a pleasant surprise.
--Jim Siergey, NART comics
Sorry I didn’t have PC last fall. Students
in my modern American Poetry course would have
gone crazy of “The Hollow Men”.
--Bruce Bennett
Highlight of PC 13 has to be good Emily’s
letter to TW. Particularly liked the panel de-
picting the words at what I imagine to be some
place like Curly’s Chop House. But then again,
I’ve always been an excitable boy. Also liked
the Don Hall and Jim McCurry contributions. We
will--all of us--be one day driven to the bringk
of hamburger madness.
Did you happen to see David Hilton’s penguin
piece in FLOATING ISLAND? And just when we were
beginning to think the 80’s were devoid of
spiritual leaders, too…The boy had better
watch his step or he’ll be overfrun with truth
seekers in the streets of Baltimore, demanding
perfect quiches and ultimate lawn ornaments.
You’re working at Walden’s, huh? Put away any
good books lately? They say that by the end of
1983 some 55% of all books bought in the
country will be pried from,the jaws of the big-
gest chain outfits. PT Barnum is alive & well.
--David Clewell
Thank you for sharing your poetry with me.
At this time I have SOOOO much paperwork,
that I wouldn’t have time to read more. I book
through much of 1981 . . . so have little time,
even for letters. Best wishes to you.
--Phyllils Diller
We love Poetry Comics! Perhaps the best thing
to happen in poetry since the Great Vowel Move-
ment of the 14th century--at least the best
since Poetry Matchbooks!
We want you to read here (Creede Repertory
Theatre this summer if you can. We’d have $200
(plus some expenses, hopefully.)…
You, my dear friend, are probably the only
true genius in American poetry today.
ABUSE THE MUSE! (and find seven gods…)
--Walter Hall
…by redirecting a PC to me you cost me 53¢
on a day I was penniless. Got another one 2 hrs
beforeo--charmed charmed by the quick skim.
Thanks also for the quarter-page, really.
Note: you also function as a current-address
sheet, yr letters. Highly useful.
--Gerald Burns
I would like to thank you very much for your
gift of the magazine, “Poetry Comics.” It
really pleases me to know that the music works
for you in exactly the way that I would like
it to work. I hope you keep listening.
Thank you again for your thoughtfulness.
Peace,
--John Denver
…Your cover (of PC 13) well illustrates
the literary jungle of confused ideals
--Opal Louis Nations, Strange Faeces
Opened PC 13, read it straight thru--said
after Dickinson collage “Ah God,… That’s
great”--which probably sums up the sentiments
on that you’ll receive, perhaps your greatest
work to date, in PC.
By the way--another instance of either/or
thinking--Denise Levertov (for whom i have the
greatest admiration) doesn’t seem to realize
the same act of mind doesn’t necessarily em-
brace reading PC & reading poems, pure &
naked. There’s no need for comparison. The
world allows, persistently, opening for all
kinds of alternatives… side by side. N need
to choose among them (except to say, “What
shall I do?” in any given moment). It’s not an
Either-Or. PC enriches the universe. Also,
poems do. One neither vitiates nor enriches
the other, as i see it--though i like the
cartoon you made of “New Babylon” a helluva
lot better than my original poem (as I re-
member it.)
--Jim McCurry, Delirium
My name is Ivo Kamps, and I am one of the
people working on “The Styllus”, the literary
magazine of Quincy College. We are planning to
put out a new issue before Easter break, & we
really want to make it somewhat more unusual
than it has been in previous years.
Jim Haining (editor of “Salt Lick”) gave me
your name and showed me some of the poetry
comics you have published--I especially enjoy-
ed the issue on the romantics. My question is:
would you care to submit some of your poetry
comics for possible publication in our maga-
zine? We would be honored if you did. Our
deadline is Feb. 17. I know I am givng you
very short notice, but if yo8u have some ready-
to-go material it might work out…
--Ivo Kamps, The Styllus
Thanks for #13--Yes, I’ll send work, & yes,
yours is a fix we all need. $20 for a lifetime
subscription? OK, I’ll mortgage the cats.
Stoogism can’t be fooled.
--Paul F. Fericano
Sometimes I feel I am losing my mind, but it
is always good to find it again in yr Comics.
#13 came today, & I don’t mean to drag my
qualms with Ms. Levertov, for poetry, after
all, is serious business, but, unfortunately,
it payslittle. And asold Ez pointed out
“solemnity” is an emotion totally out of place
when approaching literature…
Donald Hall’s The Corner is a gem. I had not
read the poem before, and I take it the spaces
between phrases indicate line breaks. To vis-
ualize a poem, in whatever manner, makes that
poem a new creation. After all, it was Johnny
Keats who said his name was “writ on water.”
What a far out idea! I think you could even
do justice to Donne’s Holy Sonnets… Poems
are not inviolable, no more than any object is,
emotional hermeticism aside…
The Hollow Men was a gas! Ispilled a glass
of sherry reading it. Perhaps a cartoon angel
descended & snatched it away, for, alas, I
needed it not. I had never read the poem from
the point of view of women! Sure, we can get
away from all that mythology now, and the poem
comes alive, just as THE TAMING OF THE SHREW
comes alive when the actor/cartoonist plays it
straight.
I’m spreading theCOMICS around out here, &
everyone loves them. As Sheila Toth said, the
letters column is a great way for people to
get to or keep in contact. As it widens, we
all know what each other thinks.
--Darrell Gray
Another great issue, #13, especially the
smiley face on front cover & Santa Buddha (from
Naropa?) on back. Thanks also for the opportu-
nity to reprint your trivia list (PC 7) in
Cumberland Journal’s gossip/list/general infor-
mation issue…
--George Myers Jr., Cumberland Journal
Yes, we definitely want to continue getting
POETRY COMICS. I’m amazed that it took us this
long to find out about them.
Here is our check paying for the two “life
time” subscriptions, in fact make it 3…
--Bob Wilson, Phoenix Book Shop
Thank you for the enclosures but to be per-
fectly frank my mail is so weighted down with
things that I have made up my mind never to
encourage anyone to send me anything.
--Isaac Asimov
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-15, Apr 81)
It’s very nice of you to have sent along
some issues of Poetry Comics. In the desolate
piles of literary debris on the desk, I see
issues 8, 10, 11, and 13. Please send me what
back issues are available & what is to come.
Lifetime subscription check is enclosed. May
I say it is refreshing to see Iowa City pro-
duce something beside ‘the usual’. Poetry in
Iowa seems remarkably stone –age, like the
congressional representatives that North
Carolina sends to Washington.
I’ve put a few of myh postcards in this en-
velope, along with Gnomon Distribution cata-
log, & a copy of Bill Anthony’s BIBLE STORES,
which may be to your taste. My work owes some-
thing to Burma Shave signs & to such subver-
sive, anti-Jerry Falwell manifestations as
Batman & Robin… Lately, B. Kliban & Claes
Oldenburg have amused me greatly and I prize
them as persons exploring a world I also live
in. Your Emily Dicinson pages certainly
freshen that lady up for me….
--Jonathan Williams, Jargon Society
John asked me to thank you for the Poetry
Comics which he found quite amusing.
Keep up the good work--I think you are
talented.
--Joan Edwards, Personal Assistant
to John Travolta
Finally got a chance to read all the Comics
you sent me and after reading them I can’t
wait to see future issues of PC. In looking
at all 14 issues it’s nice to see you are
constantly experimenting with different ways of
telling the poem. Your letters pages are lots
of fun, but it would be even more fun if the
letters pages were more two-way, if you would
response at least to the letters requesting
response. Still in all it’s bgetter than any
other letters column in an other comix.\
--Jamie Alder, Tales Too Tough for TV (comics)
Here is the copy of POETRY COMICS that you
sent on March 26. (PC-13)
Since this type of humor is not the kind
that Lily finds amusing I am returning it to
you without having presented it to her.
--Saw your cartoon “The Pinball Manifesto” on
the front of the latest Poetry Flash hereabouts
& wanted to send congratulations & admiring
words. I’vfe seen some of your other works (in
various books I guess) & it occurred to me to
write to ask if: a( you might be willing to let
us reproduce the PINBALL drawing in a magazine
of prisoners work which I’m currently putting
together or b) maybe you have another drawing
which you would like to submit to the magazine.
We could pay something – say $40. from our
contributors fund, as a token of our gratitude.
The magazine, KITE, is a quarterly of poetry
& prose written by men & women in prison in the
U.S. Since most of these people don’t see a lot
of other literary efforts, I’m sure they’d
enjoy being introduced to your work. We hope to
get the 1st issue out in May so the sooner you
could reply the better. I’m new to the prison work
habing previously been involved with Sanddollar
Books & Turtle Island press & am currently
spending time with folks at Blackstone Press.
--Susan Roether, Kite
I very much enjoyed your latest PC (13)
with all the sandwich board poets on the
cover. I recognize my own school there on
the far left.
I really enjoyed “The Corner”, and the
exclamacolons, etc.
I’m also writing to invite your participa-
tion in a health fair… I was wondering
if you might like towrite/illustrate a
poem--around the health fair? On any health-
type topic? Maybe spontaneous short poems
conveying your impression of what’s going
on at the fair? Whatever--you’re very welcome
to “demonstrate poetry”
--Jeff Weih
“You see someone’s head, and you want to
push it, squeeze it, see what happens..”--Philip Guston
Your comics bring startling fresh dimen-
sions to poetry & break through stony accre-
tions! Three cheers. “Artist Room” (PC-14)
was like a dream I had the other night. Also
enjoyed the pickings in New Blood magazine.
I read recently that you can start teaching
your baby to read at 6 months by flashing
word cards (with drawings). Perhaps I should
commission you to makesome”? Have to make up
a list: fish, kitty, buddha etc. Edwin
Ambrose LeFebre Bye will be 6 months on April
21. His favorite word is “boo” which is
popular at poetry readings.
Happy penning!
--Anne Waldman, Rocky Ledge
Thank you for sending me such a nice letter
and also a copy of your publication, Poetry
Comics. Certainly is interesting and I’m so
glad to know you enjoyed my peformance of
Mark Twain in Iowa City.
--Hal Holbrook
The two issues of PC that I’ve seen are,
quite simply, real good! Imaginative inter-
pretations, various drawing styles, very pro-
fessionally done. Emilyh Dickinson was your
“tour de force{“ I’d say, & in fact, just have.
The Hollow Men has a distinct mood about it.
Very eerie and very effective. The shorts are
terrific too, my personal favorites being,
Seurat & Gris meeting (what a nice touch,
protraying them in their artistic styhles),
the cinematic “Recollection” and “Spiritual
Advice.”
You have a very likeable drawing style,
light & airy, but yet each poem is drawin with
a subtly different approach.
Well, here’s my latest… Surf ‘n’ Turf…
which is available from me for $2 ppd. if you
know of any interested parties. Hope you
enjoy & that we can keep an exchange/dialogue.
--Jim Siergey, NART comics
PC-14 is straight dynamite, esp. the BACK
COVER! Here’s a new poem celebrating the
imminent* decline of western civilization.
Thought it might make a good comic. Thanx
again for last THRILLING ISH.
*(er was that last week’s news??)
--Tom Clark
The whole staff of The Wolfman Jack Radio
Show loved the issue of “Poetry Comics” you
sent along. Since I’m the writer of the pro-
gram and because Wolf is usually too busy to
respond to letters personally, I thought I’d
drop you a line to applaud your ‘zine.
I took special interest in the mag for]
reasons twofold--
firstfold: When I’m not immersed in projects
writing for da Wolf, I contribute to few
small pressesl.
secondfold--I am currently involved in
starting my own small publication; a literary
mag called ‘fat tuesday’.
Morefolds – Perhaps you’d be interested in
submitting a few illustrations (5x8) for the
debut issue of ‘fat tuesday’?
--would you like to illustrate, for a future issue
of “PC”, some of the verse Wolfman has
done on his radio show?
…Hope to hear from you soon, (an a thankya
an hi from da Wolfman!!)
--Frank Cotolo
Thanx for PC-14! Wonderfuller & wonderfuller!
Great to see “Big Ant in Springtime” by David
Hilton) in 2-D. Pick me! Pick me!
--Warren Woessner, Abraxas Press
Did many people get you on spelling for
Dickinson (PC-13)? It still startles me when
established in-the-business verse people
can’t spell.
--Gerald Burns
Here are your originals from the Olson
strip. Feel free to reprint this cartoon in]
an upcoming issue of PC, don’t bother to
request permission etc. acknowledgments wel-
come but optional. It was a real privilege to
publish it in Red Hand Book II. I think it’s
among your best comix, along with the Eliots
(Prufrock & Hollow Men) & a few others. I keep
going back over the past issues & notice that
some of the strips, in particular, get better
with every reading. This Maximus takeoff
is one of those. It certainly added its own new
dimension to the bgook. I never met Charles O,
but I have a feelinghe would have gotten, or
did get (wherever he might be) a kick out of it.
--Tom Patterson, Red Hand Book
Thanks for publishing “Surprise.” It defin-
itely works. Poetry Comics is an inspired way
to promote poetry & you are to be congratu-
lated. As far as Raw Dog Press, we are slowly
making progress and will send you our chap-
books when they are printed….
--R. Gerry Fabian, Raw Dog Press
Please accept my deepest apologies for the
lengthof time that has elapsed since you sent
us your proposal for POETRY COMICS. (By the
way, Carol Wallace is no longer here at Work-
man.) I am returning herewith all of the
materials you had sent usw since, I’m sorry to say,
we do not feel your book would be right
for the Workman list.
We do thank you for having thought of Work-
man and wish you better luck elsewhere. Once
again, our apologties for taking so long to
respond. Sincerely,
--Jan Hershkowitz, Workman Publishing
Just got #14 in the mail--$ just in time.
Crane’s “in the Dessert” has always been my
lifesaver. But your cartoonization of it is a
whole roll of lifesavers. Brilliant & enter-
taining…. My satires are getting easier to
write, thanksto Ronnie Raygun & his cowboy
grin. It’s find a decent home for them--
that’s difficult, still. Yeah, “Meanwhile Back
in New York” was rejected by The New Yorker.
But I asked them to. And they still didn’t get
it. So much for stooge heaven. “REJECTION SLIP
Rejection Slip”: bullseye.
--Paul Fericano
Andrei Codrescu says I should definitely re-
view your Poetry Comix in Smoke Signals. Would
like to do a page feature on it, but haven’t
been able to get hold of any. If you can send,
would appreciate greatly.
--Mike Golden, Smoke Signals
I’m a maschochist from way back. I’d like to
submit to your abuse. Here are three poems that
were published in TELEPHONE 13 & 16…. The
other poems have not appeared anywhere so if
you would like to horse-whip them….just bew
sure you wear plenty of chrome & leather…
--Rich Murphy
Poetry Comics--it fills a void! Have you
considered sending a few issues to junior high
schools? What an innovative way to introduce
poetry!
My favorite “poems” of the issue you sent
are “Fra Lippo Lippi,” “In the Desert,” and
“Secrets of the Estate.” I think you’ve come
up with the first new idea to hit poetry in
decades! I’m not sure your creative interpre-
tations will work for all poems, but they
certainly add a twinkle to the 3 I mentioned.
You must keep[ this going, going…Keep on!
One suggestion: you might consider using a
display type for your cover logo. Orplid or
Futura Black or Umbra might suit your taste.
You could adapt the typeface to make it “your
own.” A typeface “adds a little extra.”
--Charles Lebeda, Street Bagel
#14 is a dinger of an issue as usual. Too
bad John Keats didn’t write his “This Living
Hand with foot-notes. Have you ever tried to
make, with little line as possiblee, a bunch of
large written Chinese characters into a
Chinese cartoon strip?
--Opal Nations, Strange Faeces
Thanks for PC-14, which looks great. I’m
glad you used the little poem of mine. And
I’m glad to send you the enclosed Triangles,
which I owe you anyway!...
--Ron Padgett
PC-14 arrived today & as usual was totally
entertaining & enlightening--as for the ex-
cerpt from that love poem of mine about being
“crazy”--you sure know how to make things new--
thank you--it made me laugh like usuall only
others do--out loud & unselfconsciously--
--Michael Lally
Never quite pictured my lineslike that--
looked like Lucky & Pozo in “Waiting for Godot.”
Perhaps one day you’ll take a stab at “Pru-
frock”--“Like a patient etherized upon a table
should be fun. (oh no--I see, from a letter in
PC-13, you’ve already done it) ….do like the
letters idea very much. (Basically, I’m a
voyeur.)…
--Diane Kruchkow, Stony Hills
THE MUSE’S MAILBAG (PC-16, Oct 81)
My thanks for sending all those issues of PC.
I think I’ve been abusing the Muse in my own
right. It’s the only way to go…
You have not only been abusing the Muse, but
you have also been amusing the Muse.
--Russell Edson
I have read every item in your #15 including
the letters. Somebody suggested your adopting
a format for the covers. I second the motion.
I love the POETS MENTAL BLOCK REMOVER.
Now it is obvious that you can do comics ac-
dording to the style of most any well known
cartoonist. Which is great. I know we cn’t ex-
pect you to go to the technical perfection of
Prince Valiant. Most of your readership would
not find that funny enough anyway. However I
much prefer the ones where you show your full
professional workmanship, suchas QUICK TURN
and the back of #15, which I consider a stroke
of Genius!!!! La Belle Dame is masterful, but
I dislike A FACE & “Perifery.” Let some 5 year
old do them. They look as if you had been
smoking something at the time of drawing.
I also second Charles Lebeda’s suggestion.--
Toward the end of TYGER you seem to have gotten
tired. But more power to you. I can see it
coming right back in turning the pages of the
untitled book.
--Car; T. Endemann
I understand from Jeff Weinstein (after I’d
read his piece in the Voice) that you might have
a booklength Poetry Comics in mind or in prepar-
ation. I’d like to discuss this with you if
you’d care to.
--James Raimers, Senior Editor
Ticknor & Fields / Houghton-Mifflin
…One good anecdote here. I grabbed the
issues you sent & started reading on the sub-
way home one night. I was so delighted by one
poem that I laughed out loud. A woman next to me
looked over (as usual), undecided whether to
back away from a potential crazy or just take
her chances), we began talking. I passed her
an issue, she reminisced about her poetry
course in college20 years ago, we traded fav-
orite frames from the issue we were reading.
(She had to gert off at 14th St., I recall,
with great reluctance. Truly an underground
fan club for PC…
--Anne Kostick, Seaview Books
…as I think the CUTIST ANTHOLOGY is one of
the best books published in ’79, I was de-
lighted to see John Keats rendered “cute”
(PC-15)--such cutistic treatment should be
extended to dark bards everywhere, including
Baudelaire. Baudelaire was CUTE! Rimbaud too.
However I’ve discovered the cutest poet of all,
thanks to a friend in London: Ella Wheeler
Wilcox, a Victorian cutologist… Needless to
say her “authorised editions” are uniformly
bound in “limp whnite cloth…” She was, of
course, an American & quite famous, although
I doubt she realized just how cute her work
was. For my prt I will spend the rest of my
days constantly quoting from her work.
--Derek Pell, Hyena Editions
Just a quick note to thank you for your let-
ter & thoughtful comments. It was good to hear
from you and to share your Poetry Comics. You
do an excellent job. With all good wishes.\
--Elizabeth Taylor Warner
…Thank you so much for sending the draw-
ings to us, & also for the interview I en-
joyed very much helpingto produce the piece
for the weekend All Things Considered progtram,
& I had a good cackle over some of the PCs.
You mentioned a future project of documentj-
ing the history of poetry through comics.
Maybe as a sideline you could include the
history of comic art in poetry…that probably
starts with William Blake, or even with
the ancient Egyptians…
--Alex van Oss, All Things Considered
…One suggestion for PC: poems that are bet-
ter known/more familiar may be more appreciated
in the comics form onlyh because the specifics
of the translation/interpretation would be more
apparent (to more people). Also: more recent
poems, & consequently, those with less of a
“structure” seem to lose their “poemness”, seem
not to read as pems in the comics form.
--Alison Podel, Holt, Rinhart & Winston
…I feel so much in sympathy (like an ally)
with your work that I’d be willing to help out
somehow. I’ve not done comic strips before, but
I feel inspired. Something in your work clicks
more than in, say, Lichtenstein’s paintings of
comic book heroes/lovers/brushtrokes…
Do comic strips have to imitate various mas-
ter cartoonists? I wonder & yet the way you
combine familiar cartooning styles with unfam
iliar or forgotten lines of poetry seems Right
On! There must be lots of peolple like who
can’t memorize poetry or even song lyrics.
Poet’s isolation today is dreadful! The comic
strip form or something like it is the ticket,
I’m positive. Maybe it does trivialize a great
program or fragment of one. It’s something like
diagramming sentences back in high school.
Your comics are new growth such as takes
over a burned out field in nature! That’s it!
I got it! Diagrammed sentences keep branching
out and branching out. THE WORD IS A GREEN FACE
IN A MARBLE THICKET, wrote Kenneth Patchen.
Well, I’LL BE DAFT!
I’ll send you My non-narrative poem as soon
as I tinker with it some more. I want it pub-
lished as a comic strip. I want to see my
bumper sticker verse shine in the fog around
us. I can draw. Pencil lines are the ribcage,
not the heart of the drawing. Theheart goes
flub dub flub dub the junior high instruction-
al film told us.
--Phil Gore
Sorry to be so long in writing, but I really
have been very, very busy. Anyway, it was good
to hear from you, & especially to receive
Poetry Comics. I think they are very funny, &
that you are very talented.
Thanks again. Stay happy & healthy, & good
luck to you with your career.
--George Burns
…Have you put your Poetry Comics through
the cartoon syndicate mill as yet. I think you
should.--newspapers can use something different!
--Virgil Partch, “Big George”
I recently read an article in the VILLAGE
VOICE about your periodical, POETRY COMICS.
I enjoyed the article a great deal, & was much
tantalized by the snippets of your creations.
It occurs to me that an anthology of the
best pieces from PC, or perhaps some thematic
selection, might make a very nice, & very suc-
cessful, trade book. I wonder if this has oc-
curred to you, & if so, if you have any ideas
or suggestions. If this notion appeals to you,
perhaps you could send me a sample of some of
your favorite works which I could show around
here to get some feedback from other editors
&, ultimately, the Editorial Board…
--Robert C. Eckhard, Simon & Schuster
…It’s the first issue (PC-15) that seems
to me a falling-off from yhour standard--maybe
because of the large-figure Codrescu/Slater/
Brainard pages (not sure brush is a good no-
tion…) but really think (a) the horror
motif’s so valuable given your magazine’s
appearance & expectations that it’s a shame
to waste it on Blake, & (b) your other Name,
the Keats, while lovely as local surprises,
is (sort of almost) more contrived toward
those surprises than usual. By contrast it
makes your usual moves graceful throwaways,
as if really lucky lucky hits--things that,
elated by malice, you happen on. Which raises
the question whether you think ‘em through
first, since some of your freshness seems to
come from just-thought-of glee.
Philosophically, it could be that horror
comic graveyards and happy faces are recognizable,
& the recognizable is hard to work.
Then, you’re not graveyard-in-general bgut de-
liberate Fstein film cliché, & as I recall the one
to excell in that line is the early
(comic-format) Mad rendering thereof, I think
dropped brain & all. Again, the genuinely
mythic…maybe should have gone to a slighter
or at least recent poem, for the contrast.
(Tyger & Merci maybe too close to same kind
of stuffed building.)…
--Gerald Burns
The Village Voice description of y0our PC
sounds so good that I don’t even mind that
you psychic-ly swiped my branichild--Prufrock
Funnies.
--Karla Mallette
You are a master of a thousand styles.
Impressive. I like your magazine.
--Johnny Hart, “B.C.” & “The Wizard of Id”
WORDS FROM THE REVIEWERS
I’ll start off with Dave Morice’s Poetry
Comics. Dave used to edit Gum and the smallest
mag I’ve ever seen, Matchbook (poetry issued in
real matchbooks). Now he works with poetry,
kids & the elderly. The them of Comics is
“Abuse the Muse”… The 19 pg. magazine comes
replete with 2 pgs of letters much like the
letters to Stan Lee in the real comics. Only
here, poets write the letters… Morice’s draw-
ings are not great & the renditions are not
generally awe-inspiring. But they are enjoy-
able. It’s about time poets put the smirk back
on their faces & Morice is helping us do that.
--Diane Kruchkow, from MWPA Newsletter 30
…So do you. & so does Dve Morice, editor
of PC, whose own word “cartoonizing” seems a
good one for describing this process of the
reader’s making the poem by reading it…
There, sharing the page, are the poetry, Mor-
ice’s images & my own cartoonizing… Morice’s
drawings flow & move, pushing me forward &
pulling my eyes from the sitting words. Sur-
rounded by strong, mobile images such as hi8s,
how can the text seem but secondary? If you
don’t think Blake should run second to Morice,
beware… Moreover, I mayu know the poemj before
I get to PC. Then the cartoonizing I have al-
ready done & carry with me comes forward out of
its cave at the call of the text, to meet Mor-
ice’s--as one’s own sense of a novel is laid
against the director’s in the film version…
My reaction overall to Morice therefore comes
down to whether I find his drawings to be
clever, witty & interesting enough to put aside
my own cartoons & my own cartoonizing tempor-
arily. & I do… Morice deserves credit for
attempting to combine popular & serious culture
& make a new thing in the reader’s mind. Is it
a unified thing, or is it comics sweetening
poems, sentences holding up pictures, a poetry
plot to return more of us to verse or a comic
plot to return more of us to images?...I do
know that once I give myself to Morice’s comics,
they affect me eventually the way I am affected
by reading the cartoonizing of other literary
critics: I see freshly my own resonses to lit-
erature…
--Nowel Stein-Michael
from The St. Louis Mirror, Oct. 81, Vol. 1 No. 6