By Eugene Plawiuk
Le Revue Gauche
Monday, Jun 19 2006

Kenneth Patchen was and is an underrated American poet, a surrealist, an anarchist, a founder of the Beat movement, a painter and illustrator.

I came across his works when we ran Erewhon Books, the Anarchist Bookstore in Edmonton in the seventies and eighties.

His stream of conciousness novel The Journal of Albion Moonlight has many memorable mise et scenes. Like Jesus and Hitler arguing about capital punishment, murder and war on a train. Hitler wins the argument.

Or the tale of the little light bulb that hides in the impoverished home of a poor working class family, keeping them in light to live and learn, hiding from the nameless electrical company which wants to kill this lightbulb because unlike its mates, it is eternal. It can provide light forever, but the evil corporation that makes light bulbs has created all the other bulbs to die out, planned obselecence.
He was anti-war, a true anarchist pacifist. He spoke out against WWII when it was far from popular to do so, even amongst the left. His wife Miriam was his muse and his most ardent advocate.

«For more than thirty years, Patchen lived with a severe spinal ailment that caused him almost constant physical pain. The weight of this personal battle was compounded by his sensitivity to greater issues of humanity, and his poetry paid special attention to the horrors of war. With his work he tried to create a kind of sanctuary for the reader, apart from reality, where larger-than-life characters were motivated by their loving and benevolent natures. Kenneth Patchen died in 1972.»

There is a Canadian connection with Patchen. Both Vancouver and Edmonton. His poetry reading accompanied by Jazz music was recorded for Smithsonian, and is both in their Folkways collection in the U.S. and at the University of Alberta.

He was the first avante garde poet to mix avante garde jazz with the spoken word. Patchen was a man out of time, ahead of his time, always in the here and now. He is still influencing modern music; New Redlemon Song ‘Truly,’ from StarSearch Winner Turned Lawyer, Features Beat Poet Kenneth Patchen;

Patchen is relevant today as an antitode to the era of the Security State whose politics of fear exudes the paranoia of the endless aimless war against terror, which is terror itself

«There are so many little dyings that it doesn’t matter which of them is death.»
His most famous art book of concrete poetry that used creative typescripting is Sleepers Awake. Well ahead of his time his illustrations remind one of those created by Peter Max for the Beatles Yellow Submarine movie.

*The whole article with extensive links and quotes from and about Patchen is at Le Revue Gauche http://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2006/06/kenneth-patchen.html

Kenneth Patchen Timeline

Courtesy of Larry Smith
Last updated 26 Junuary ’96

1911
Born Niles, Ohio, 13 December
1926
Attends Warren G. Harding School, Warren, Ohio
1927
Attends Warren G. Harding School, Warren, Ohio
1928
Publishes in school newspaper
1929
Attends Alexander Meikeljohn’s Experimental College, Wisconsin
Publishes «Permanence» in the New York Times
1930
Attends Alexander Meikeljohn’s Experimental College, Wisconsin
Attends Commonwealth College, Mena, Arkansas
On the road
1931
On the road
1932
Living and working in Boston
Publishes Lenin in Rebel Poet
1933
Meets Miriam Oikemus in Boston
1934
Marries Miriam Oikemus, 28 June
Moves to Greenwich Village, New York
Writes reviews for New Republic
1935
Living in Greenwich Village, New York
1936
Publishes first book of verse, Before the Brave
1937
Moves to Los Angeles
Sustains back injury
Lives in Los Angeles
1938
Lives in Los Angeles
1939
Moves to Norfolk, Connecticut
Works for James Laughlin at New Directions publishing company
Publishes Bury Them in God
Publishes First Will and Testament
1940
Moves to New York
Begins to write The Journal of Albion Moonlight
1941
Publishes The Journal of Albion Moonlight
1942
Publishes The Dark Kingdom
Publishes The Teeth of the Lion
Broadcasts The City Wears a Slouch Hat (Radio Play)
1943
Publishes Cloth of the Tempest
1944
Wins Ohioana Award for Cloth of the Tempest
1945
Publishes Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer
1946
Publishes An Astonished Eye Looks Out of the Air
Publishes Outlaw of the Lowest Planet
Publishes Sleepers Awake
Publishes Pictures of Life and Death
Publishes Panels for the Walls of Heaven
Publishes They Keep Riding Down All the Time
Publishes Selected Poems
1947
Moves to Old Lyme, Connecticut
Publishes introduction to Job. Invented and Engraved by William Blake
1948
Publishes CCCLXXIV Poems
Publishes To Say if You Love Someone
Publishes See you in the Morning
1949
Publishes Red Wine and Yellow Hair
1950
First major spine operation
1951
Moves to California
1952
Living in San Francisco
Publishes Orchards, Thrones and Caravans
1953
Publishes Fables and Other Little Tales
1954
Receives Shelley Memorial Award
Publishes The Famous Boating Party
Publishes Poems of Humor and Protest
1955
Publishes Glory Never Guesses
1956
Undergoes spinal fusion operation
Publishes Surprise for the Bagpipe Player
1957
Pioneers Poetry-Jazz with the Chamber Jazz Sextet
Records Kenneth Patchen Reads with the Chamber Jazz Sextext
Publishes Hurrah for Anything
Publishes When we were here together
1958
Publishes Poemscapes
1959
Sustains further back injury during surgery
Publishes the play Don’t Look Now
1960
Publishes Because It Is
Publishes The Love Poems of Kenneth Patchen
1961
Records Kenneth Patchen Reads His Love Poems
1966
Publishes Hallelujah Anyway
Publishes Doubleheader
1967
Receives award from National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities for
«life-long contribution to American letters»
1968
Publishes But Even So
Publishes The Collected Poems
Publishes Love and War Poems
1970
Publishes Aflame and Afun of Walking Faces
Publishes There’s Love All Day
1971
Publishes Wonderings
Publishes Tell You That I Love You
1972
Dies California, 8 January
Tribute held at City Lights Poets Theater, 2 February
In Quest of Candlelighters published, May 1972
1977
Tribute to Kenneth Patchen published
Patchen’s Lost Plays published
1980
Still another Pelican in the Breadbox published
1984
What Shall We Do Without Us? published