To Work On Behalf Of The Wild

Will Be But Corpses Dressed In Frocks, Who Cannot Speak To Birds Or Rocks.

As A Poet I Hold The Most Archaic Values On Earth . . . The Fertility Of The Soil, The Magic Of Animals, The Power-vision In Solitude, The Terrifying Initiation And Rebirth, The Love And Ecstasy Of The Dance, The Common Work Of The Tribe. I Try To Hold Both History And The Wilderness In Mind, That My Poems May Approach The True Measure Of Things And Stand Against The Unbalance And Ignorance Of Our Times.

True Affluence Is To Not Need Anything.

Wherever Man Exists, He Finds The Need To Redesign, To Recreate The World. A More Beautiful World, Purer, Sweeter Smelling And More Colorful. A Garden Is Probably The Spot Where The Hopes For Civilization Are Best Captured. In Fact, Man Defines Himself By His Garden. My Grandmother Standing Wordless Fifteen Minutes Between Rows Of Loganberries, Clippers Poised In Her Hand.

I Never Did Know Exactly What Was Meant By The Term "the Beats," But Let's Say That The Original Meeting, Association, Comradeship Of Allen Ginsberg, Myself, Michael Mcclure, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Philip Whalen, Who's Not Here, Lew Welch, Who's Dead, Gregory Corso, For Me, To A Somewhat Lesser Extent (i Never Knew Gregory As Well As The Others) Did Embody A Criticism And A Vision Which We Shared In Various Ways, And Then Went Our Own Ways For Many Years.