wild…unconscious…fairy-tale….new…
scientific…imagination form”(Hemmer, 2007).
McClure urges us "to throw out the Word" and
seek out the "mammalian possibility" of "a larger
space" on earth. McClure breaks communication
down to its rawest constituents. He contests that
his poems follow "the lengthwise symmetry found
in higher animals".
Similar to Ferlinghetti, his main concern has
been global issues, particularly those which relate
to environmental justice. As a modern shaman-
poet, he has been committed to raising
consciousness and artistic integrity. As a "total
artist" (to borrow Patchen's term) he claims to
have been influenced by Still, Rothko and Pollock
and encompasses a lucid style of "visualisation"
through his poetics, which is reminiscent of their
artistic styles (Hemmer, 2007). In the poem “the
robe” we see McClure enter into a spirit world of
Dionysian mysteries, an imaginal “trance” where
his soul is projected “We are passing //our shapes
like nasturtiums”. McClure evokes animal spirits,
oneness and ecstasy when he states in “Hymn to
St.Geryon, I”…”I am the body…the animal” and
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