VIII
Kenneth Patchen lived for a time in Greenwich
Village and had befriended/collaborated with
Rexroth and Ferlinghetti. Influences ranging from
Blake to William Carlos Williams, his poetry is
developed from concrete poetry to picture poems.
In addition, his belief in the "total artist" led him
to illustrate his own books and even produce
papier-mache animal sculptures and other art
(Hemmer, 2007). He experimented with a variety
of poetic forms to vent his creative energy. He was
also a forerunner of the “Poetry and Jazz
movement”. A significant image of the shaman is
that of the “wounded healer” who is compelled to
act out his mystical vision. Patchen was bed-
ridden for most of his life but according to Henry
Miller was “a raging lion” who would not tolerate
the refusal to act. Therefore we see Patchen
combatively speaking on behalf of the tribe. In
“before the brave” he incants visions of revolution
with the wonders of a spirit world beseeching the
antimony “Build men, not creeds, seed not soil”.
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