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by Jack Foley (Author)
California poet Jack Foley has been called "a brilliant critic and a unique poet whose work energetically records the disintegration of the patriarchy" and a writer of "genuinely avant-garde poetry." His collaborative, multimedia poetry performances are both seminal and shamanic, evolving from the linguistic musical tradition of the original San Francisco Beat poets and extending their eye, ear and voice of penetrating clarity into a modern mythology. "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" - a title from Walt Whitman - is a spiritual history, an attempt to show, as Wordsworth put it many years ago, "the growth of a poet's mind." Where did I begin? What forces moved me in what directions? What is the result of the effort to create art in a medium that is currently simultaneously respected, misunderstood, and discredited? What kind of poetry is possible in a dark time? "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" throws light not only on Foley's life and work, but also on the history of twentieth-century poetry, and on the efforts, successes, and failures of Modernism.
Author Biography
Jack Foley has published 17 books of poetry, 5 books of criticism, a book of stories, and a 1300-page "chronoencyclopedia," Visions & Affiliations, detailing "California Poetry 1940-2005." He has presented poetry on Berkeley radical radio station KPFA-FM regularly since 1988 and is currently one of the hosts of KPFA's literary program, "Cover to Cover." He has received two Lifetime Achievement Awards, one from Marquis Who's Who and one from the Berkeley Poetry Festival. June 5, 2010 was declared "Jack Foley Day" in Berkeley. His recent publications include EYES (selected poems); The Tiger & Other Tales, a book of stories; Riverrun, a book of experimental poetry; and Grief Songs, a book documenting his grief at the death of his wife, Adelle. Two new books of Foley's poetry, When Sleep Comes: Shillelagh Songs and Duet of Polygon, a collaboration with Japanese poet Maki Starfield, have recently appeared, and poets/scholars Dana Gioia and Peter Whitfield have published Jack Foley's Unmanageable Masterpiece--a book of essays dealing with Visions & Affiliations. In a review, Micah Zevin writes, "Foley's When Sleep Comes: Shillelagh Songs is a collection that speaks multitudes, gives voice and voices to the human condition in all its tragic and celebratory facets, compels us to keep singing until the last song is sung."
