The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth

Kenneth Rexroth is a poet of enormous achievement. The Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth assembles all of his published longer and shorter poems, and includes a never-before-published selection of his earliest work. Rexroth's poems of nature and protest are remarkable for their erudition and biting social and political commentary; his love poems justly celebrated for their eroticism and depth of feeling. The definitive Rexroth volume.

Now once more gray mottled buckeye branches
Explode their emerald stars,
And alders smolder in a rosy smoke
Of innumerable buds.
I know that spring again is splendid
As ever, the hidden thrush
As sweetly tongued, the sun as vital
But these are the forest trails we walked together,
These paths, ten years together.
We thought the years would last forever,
They are all gone now, the days
We thought would not come for us are here.
Bright trout poised in the current
The raccoon's track at the water's edge
A bittern booming in the distance
Your ashes scattered on this mountain
Moving seaward on this stream

-from "Andrée Rexroth"

"A poet of rare depth, range and power one of a handful of American poets that deserve to be called great."-Los Angeles Times

"Kenneth Rexroth was one of a vanishing race of giants, a literary lion."-Andrei Codrescu

By any measure, Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) is one of the world's great literary minds. In addition to being a poet, translator, essayist and teacher, Rexroth also helped found the San Francisco Poetry Center. He was reluctantly branded "Grandfather of the Beats" and influenced generations of readers with his Classics Revisited series.

Also Available by Kenneth Rexroth
Sacramental Acts: Love Poems
TP $15.00, 1-55659-080-6 CUSA

By any measure, Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) is one of the century's great literary minds. In addition to being a poet, translator, essayist and teacher, Rexroth also helped found the San Francisco Poetry Center. He was reluctantly branded "Grandfather of the Beats" and influenced generations of readers with his Classics Revisited series.