Philip Whalen: An Introduction

[para. 1]: "It's difficult to write about the prolific work of Philip Whalen, the retiring Buddhist abbot and Beatnik whose poems "Sourdough Mountain Lookout," "2 Variations: All About Love" and others entered the historical imagination through Donald Allen's The New American Poetry. Reading his books - On Bear's Head, Scenes of Life From The Capital, or Heavy Breathing, to name a few - is pure, highgrade fun, and offers a chronological roller coaster ride through the mind and moods of a master poet. But to address the work itself, to speak of it critically, or to answer its more subtle demands, becomes a great difficulty."