SELECTED CORRESPONDENCE OF KENNETH PATCHEN

The new Kenneth Patchen letters bookis now available pre-order from Amazon.comin hardbound and soft cover.Here's the chapter list:@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Chapter One: AN IMAGINARY WORLD (1929-1933)...

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Rejected New Yorker Comic

A while ago I sent in a few cartoons toThe New Yorker magazine as a joke.They all had to include a snooty phrase.This is the only one I still have.Unfortunately, their rejection replygot lost behind the refrigerator ofthe old house we used to rent.This one is still fun...

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Speaking of Lincoln

In honor of Bernard Waber's booksthis is a story from my Home Recordings(2009, Bird Dog Publishing) originallypublished in Pie in the Sky magazine #24(pieintheskymagazine.blogspot.com/)March 15, 1993 12:24 PM:@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1...

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Just Like Abraham Lincoln

Last night we read Just Like Abraham Lincolnby Bernard Waber, Houghton Mifflin Co, Boston, 1964.What a great book! What will happen when Mr. Pottspushes his Lincoln obsession? Will he defy history and appear at the school theater? And how about that surprise ending?!...

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"I'm not saying..."

I'm not saying I know who drew this fishand taped it to the new display case at workbut I bet it's the same person who put aphoto of Richard Nixon on the paper shredder... (By the way, these were taken down pretty quickly.) ...

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The $5 Ghost

The $5 Ghost My sister bought a ghost for five dollars. Her friend arranged the sale and gave us specific directions which we followed precisely. First we wrote a welcoming letter to the ghost. At 8 o’clock we opened the front door an inch and placed the note beside a candle. We sat in the hallway for a while, lit by the yellow glow. We were tuned to the ghost frequency, listening for the smallest sigh or voice, jumping at flickers. ...

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Jubilee Hitchhiker

I’ve been reading William Hjortsberg’s brand newbiography of Richard Brautigan, Jubilee Hitchhiker.I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time.Just this morning, before I had to run off for the bus,I learned of, “Brautigan’s high regard for the workof Kenneth Patchen…According to Virginia [Alder,his first wife], Patchen’s poetry ‘was one of thefirst things we talked about.’ ” (p. 124)This book is fantastic, a huge saga ofone of my favorite...

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Son of the Fly

A man walked past a wall covered in sunlight.He swatted at a fly that rested there.Why should a fly get to enjoy the sunny day?The fly didn't go far, it found a leafon a new spring flower. It held its wingsshining back light.The man went into a tall buildingand reappeared a minute latertrapped behind a window.Annotated 'Son of the Fly':This is my Drive-In movie ideawritten two days ago on the firstsunny day we've had in a long time.koan: which one...

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movie time

Time to watch a good movie:Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (19...

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1968 Fairbanks

Today I mailed off the corrected proofsfor the Kenneth Patchen Letters book toLarry Smith of Bottom Dog Press. I told himall night long Patchen kept appearing in mydreams. Just before the alarm clock woke me,he was driving me around in a blue 1968Fairbanks (?) a car he was quite proud of. This is Larry Smith's response: Larry Smith responded:"Miriam may have enlarged on the facts at times,but she says Henry Miller really couldn't drivea...

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Kenneth Patchen Cover

This is the cover artwork(from a letter Kenneth Patchen wrote)for the Selected Correspondence bookdue next month in April 2012available from Bottom Dog Press.333 pag...

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a week of rain

The Wonderful Wednesday That’s Thursday For You Fly Away Friday Saturday Submarine Sunday Morning Radio Monday Turned Green With Scales and Wings Finding Sun Above Tuesday Wednesday Again The Wonderful Wednesday I woke up to the little bird who lives in the coffee can beside my bed. After I stood in warm water washing off good dreams I made a breakfast from the spaghetti we ate last night. That’s Thursday For You You’ve got...

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Kenneth Patchen Letters Release

Since last summer, Larry Smith and Ihave been working on a new collection,Selected Correspondence of Kenneth Patchenwhich will have its book release in Ohioat the Lakewood Public Library near Clevelandon April 26th. I'll try to be there t...

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A Couple Life Movies

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }A Couple Hundred Years Ago Our first failed Capitalist venture occurred one summer night when we went to the parking lot of the Shop N Save and tried to sell bright red t-shirts...

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Kenneth Patchen Letters

Kenneth Patchen in San Francisco parkWe're almost ready to publish his bookof selected letters, featuring E.E. Cummings,Henry Miller, Dylan Thomas and others.Letter from September 3, 1936:"We must extract the concept of the gunand the sword from the mind-worldin which too many of us live.The fault lies not in what we are,but in that thing which we would become.We must make over not the presentworld of sham and hypocrisy, but ourselves;this means...

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The Jellyfish Movie

The Jellyfish Movie Walking along, we made up a movie, seeing it happen. The lights faded out like sunset, the curtains parted and onto the screen the flickering movie began. A father and son were fishing. Their feet dangled over the edge of the pier, the boy kicking his sneakers as the man sunk a hook through the worm and cast it out into sea. They talked about the baseball scores and laughed about their neighbor’s car. Hungry gulls...

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August 16, 1975

@font-face { font-family: "Times New Roman"; }p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }div.Section1 { page: Section1;August 16, 1975 Our next door neighbor came to our door with her hand wrapped in a red towel. It was Elvis Presley’s death that sent her. She was in grieving and tried to cheer...

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The Ministry of Magic

In this time of reassignments, restructuringreallotments, 'retirements', raises for someand the razing of the Mendery,the Human Resources departmentdistributed these thick rubber braceletsto the employees of the library.'Empower' (note the inside is stampedwith the words 'It's up to you')At the slightest sign of distressor negativity, we are urged to givea violent snap of the bracelet.In other words, self-inflicted painis the official policy. It...

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