Early Robert Creeley Poems
I’m not sure whether I like Creeley’s “I Know a Man” because Mike has quoted it to me a couple of times or just because it appealed to me. Turns out, though, that it’s one of Creeley’s most famous poems, as discussed in great detail here:
I KNOW A MAN
As I sd to my
friend, because I am
always talking,—John, I
sd, which was not his
name, the darkness sur-
rounds us, what
can we do against
it, or else, shall we &
why not, buy a goddamn big car,
drive, he sd, for
christ’s sake, look
out where yr going.
The casual, conversational style of the poem is typical of the early poems I’ve read so far. Considering Creeley became friends with a number of the Beat Poets, perhaps it’s not entirely coincidental that the poem sounds like an advertisement for Kerouac’s On the Road, managing to convey both the sense of darkness in that work as well as the central metaphor of driving, and, aptly enough, the need to watch out while driving.
Somehow it seems typically American (Or is just that we’re so damned good at it?) to try to chase away the dark side of life by buying big, expensive cars and driving fast as hell. Isn’t that why almost all male, mid-life crises are accompanied by a sports car, with or without beautiful young babes?
Thematically, “Mind’s Heart” is perhaps even more typical of Creeley’s early poems:
MIND’S HEART
Mind’s heart, it must
be that some
truth lies locked
in you.
Or else, lies, all
lies, and no man
true enough to know
the difference.
For someone who seemed rather unlucky in love, Creeley certainly wrote about it a lot. And while this poem’s not about romantic love, per se, that may be precisely why it appeals to me more than some of the poems that are clearly about romantic love.
While there’s certainly no earth-shattering revelations here, it does fit quite well with Creeley’s opening statement that, “With Robert Duncan I’m committed to the hearth, and love the echoes of that word. The fire is the center.”
Sometimes the simplest statement, gnomic wisdom, as it were, is the best reminder of our deepest truths.
Loren
I’m not familiar with Robert Creeley but wonder if “I Know A Man” is related to the book and movie, “Drive, He Said”? I never knew there was a book, just saw the movie and recall some lines like, “Why don’t we just buy a big goddamn car and drive, he said” from one of the characters. Otherwise, I barely remember a thing about that movie directed by Jack Nicholson. I don’t know if the book credited the poem or not. The lines were the most powerful part of the movie, that’s all I remember!
Ron Southern — 2:56 pm June 15, 2005
A favorite Creeley poem follows. Jazz legend Steve Lacy and his wife Irene Aebi put out an album called “Futurities” which I believe is completely Creely poems set to jazz, but you may want to hear before you buy for the style of the Steve Lacy sextet is not your average “jazz” but rather alive and unencumbered by having to sound like “Jazz”, it simply is. In the future people will be trying to sound like these fine folks.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
If it isn’t fun
Don’t do it
You’ll have to do enough
That isn’t
Such is life
As they say
No one gets away
Without paying
And since you don’t
Get to keep it anyhow
Who needs it
Who needs it
-Robert Creeley
masa — 2:21 am June 20, 2005