For Sale: Roxie Powell. Dreams of Straw. SF: The Auerhahn Press, 1963.

Description

The Auerhahn Press was founded in San Francisco in 1958 by Dave Haselwood and poet Michael McClure. The press became a key part of the Beat Generation and San Francisco Renaissance, publishing works by poets, artists, and writers closely associated with these movements.

Roxie Powell is an American poet, primarily active with the Beat Generation poets — many of whom he associated with. To say Roxie’s work is experimental and countercultural might be the best way to describe it; Roxie’s poems — especially the ones found in this little book — aren’t easy to categorize. From Dave Haselwood’s intro: “These poems by Roxie Powell are free of literature, and, superficially, of sense. Which is to say that they are very original and have the sound of the raw edge of awareness. But if art is more important than madness, then these poems, which are unquestionably art, must be read.”

These poems were edited (as well as printed with Haselwood) by Charles Plymell, himself an outstanding American poet, novelist, publisher, and printer associated with the Beat Generation and the underground literary movements. And though lesser-known compared to major figures like Kerouac or Ginsberg, Roxie’s work gained a quiet following in literary circles and small-press enthusiasts. I’ll go one further and say this is the best little book of poems you’ve never heard of.