Kenneth Patchen — Picture-Poem Postcard (1968, “Little Chief…” — Leslie Tobin Imports)

Description

Kenneth Patchen was a restless American original — equal parts pacifist, performer, painter, and provocateur. Born in 1911 and raised working-class in Ohio, Patchen’s life was marked by both physical pain (a chronic spinal injury) and a refusal to be constrained by literary or cultural norms. He collaborated with jazz musicians, experimented with visual poetry before it had a name, and painted from bed when illness prevented him from standing. To talk about Patchen solely as a poet is to ignore the fuller picture: he was an artist of the margins, defiantly mixing mediums and moods, often hilarious, always humane.

This 1968 postcard — published by Leslie Tobin Imports, Inc. of Philadelphia — showcases one of Patchen’s most visually biting picture poems. In bold lettering over textured abstraction, it proclaims: “Little Chief Son-Of-A-Gun-Don’t-Give-A-Shoot / the last surviving member of the Blackfeet Tribe — Boston branch.” The piece is classic Patchen: irreverent, satirical, unsettling, and painted in riotous color with cartoonish glee. The figure, childlike and totemic, stares out with owl-like eyes and blue feet, caught between absurdity and protest. Printed on heavy card stock with rounded corners, this rare card captures Patchen’s gift for skewering America’s myths with surreal wit.

A rare and fairly riotous burst of political art in the form of a (very scarce) post card from one of American literature’s great unclassifiables.