Sunday, February 8, 2009

Cleaving Creeley



Rexroth v. Creeley

“Creeley, in Rexroth’s manic
fantasies, was a debauched
Svengali trying to spirit his
Wife off to his mud hut in
Albuquerque.”—Ekbert Faas,
Robert Creeley: A Biography

it was just awful—what a bitch fight
between rexroth—the paterfamilias
of the local sf circle—of artists, poets
and anarchists—the man who led
the poetry renaissance—of the ‘50s
famous nation-wide—international
high style self-appointed—apologist
for the—younger generation poets…

versus the one-eyed—Villain!!!
this disagreeable—just plain mean
ugly abusive—truculent insulting
ignorant hostile—vindictive drunk
piece of shit—who was having an
affair with his lovely wife—marthe!!!

somebody with—a negro accent
kept calling poor rexroth—telling
him creeley—and marthe were
making love at the cellar—down
on green street—while gangs of
riff-raff following—creeley’s demon
were gangbanging—drunk marthe
in the back alleys—of north beach!!!

marthe would come—home at night
and there rexroth—would be waiting
creaming—obscene imprecations
threatening creeley—for fucking his
lovely wife—calling her unbalanced
threatening to—commit suicide
blaming ginsberg—and his friends
for being bad—juvenile delinquents
telling allen—he knew all about the
shameless orgies—at snyder’s cabin!!!

after the infamous—scandalous howl
poetry reading—at the six gallery
when kerouac whalen—snyder and
allen ginsberg—arrived drunk at
kenneth rexroth’s home—for dinner
kerouac making light—of the night
mockingly asked rexroth—for a drink
and rexroth exploded—while allen
ginsberg had the nerve—to call
himself—a better poet than rexroth
kerouac calling rexroth—a louche
dirty german—even tho they later
kissed and made up for—the
repeat reading—in berkeley…

marthe flew to—left rexroth
without saying goodbye—calling
her boss—at san francisco state
flying out of—SF airport all the
way down to—albuquerque nm
to live with creeley—in taos
where he was—caretaker for the
dilapidated—d. h. lawrence ranch
creeley content—that his love for
marthe and children—were going
to be a solid—new beginning

while rexroth—wrote to laughlin
his leery—new directions publisher
“for christ’s sake—hurry up a
really awful—disaster is near!!!
everybody—in san francisco
full of lies, tricks—evasions
marthe a woman—possessed
my children—kidnapped and
my world—falling apart!!!”
even tho—the couple hadn’t
been legally—married back
then—when the kids were
born—which was frowned
upon naturally—by the law.

anyway—after much angst
making a long story—the short
rather—turbulent romance
was over—rexroth quit his
shouting at her—knowing she
preferred—not creeley’s
supposed—svengali powers
but rather—bob’s smooth
gentle voice—and intimate
way of talking—leading to
further—down-the-line
midsummer—night mares…