What Shall We Do Without Us?: The Voice and Vision of Kenneth Patchen

Kenneth Patchen is a passionately unique, uniquely passionate poet -- and that's never been shown to better advantage than in this volume of his poem-paintings, rich with vibrant colors & insightful, whimsical, prophetic words. The afterward by publisher James Laughlin rightfully compares Patchen's work here to William Blake's illuminated books, which also intertwine art & poetry. Both men are moved by transcendant vision, both are outraged by cruelty & injustice, both strive for something better than the mundane drabness of so much everyday life. Most books are categorized somewhere on the back cover: Biography, History, etc. This volume is categorized as Art / Literature / Humanity ... and it's that third category that really matters. Kenneth Patchen was always very much his own man, influenced by many sources, but belonging to no school or group other than his own -- or from another angle, belonging to the human race. All his work is well worth seeking out! As for this beautiful volume, it deserves to be back in print more than 99% of the books out there right now. Most highly recommended!

Opening this book to any of the three dozen prints it contains is like (at least to those of us whom excessive exposure to workaday prose and to overlapping error-messages threatens to render prematurely senile) suddenly remembering what it was like to be a kid sitting in a tree, dangling your legs, and singing any old song you felt like singing irreverently. Patchen's colorful figures and backgrounds and words remind me of Kandinsky and Klee and maybe even of the boy Wm. Karlos Williams must have been. This is art that makes me smile and gently reminds me to pick my battles, tell the truth, and, while there's still time, gaze long and selfishly and irresponsibly at the night sky.