Huge Dreams

HUGE DREAMS brings back two books, long out of print, that are a cornerstone of the Beat movement.

For the first time in one volume, The New Book / A Book of Torture and Star present vividly contrasting sides of poetry's consciousness. In The New Book / A Book of Torture, a clasic example of immediate biological expression, Michael McClure simultaneously delves into, and delivers himself from, the self-christened "dark night of the soul." Star, a bok of wide-ranging exploration, spiritual discovery, and political protest, springs from the essence of our humanity -- emotions, the sensations of eros, and play.

Both were influential in expanding poetry into a larger world that focused on nature, the environment, antiwar activities, individual anarchism, Zen Buddhism, jazz, and a kind of romantic mystical thought. Together these two books impart a sense of the rich texture and individuality that fueled the Beat scene.

-- from the back cover

MATTER

MATTER IS ALIVE, BY GOD!
MATTER IS ALIVE!
The grains of crystal slide.
It is the moleclar consciousness!
((I must be a Pagan
to survive it
--- TO SURVIVE
this vision.
With grinning teeth!))
It takes its shape.
Fanatic Will.
Dripping. Pouring. Pressing.
HAH!

-- from Star