Clark Coolidge (born February 26, 1939) is an American poet.

Background

As a teenager, Coolidge attended

Classical High School Classical High School, founded in 1843, is a public magnet school in the Providence School District, in Providence, Rhode Island. It was originally an all-male school but has since become co-ed. Classical's motto is ''Certare, Petere, Reperire ...

in Providence, Rhode Island. Coolidge briefly attended

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, where his father founded and taught in the music department, before dropping out and traveling to Los Angeles.

Career

Coolidge's friendship with Michael Palmer brought the two poets west, first to the Vancouver Poetry Conference of 1963, and then to the Berkeley Poetry Conference of 1964. After moving to New York City in the early 1960s, Coolidge cultivated links with

Ted Berrigan Edmund Joseph Michael Berrigan Jr. (November 15, 1934 – July 4, 1983) was an American poet. Early life Berrigan was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 15, 1934. After high school, he spent a year at Providence College before joining ...

and

Bernadette Mayer Bernadette Mayer (May 12, 1945 – November 22, 2022) was an American poet, writer, and visual artist associated with both the Language poets and the New York School (art), New York School. Early life and education Bernadette Mayer was born ...

. For a while, he shared an apartment with

Aram Saroyan Aram Saroyan (born September 25, 1943) is an American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright, who is especially known for his minimalist poetry, famous examples of which include the one-word poem "lighght" and a one-letter poem compr ...

, and the two poets had a mutual influence on one another. His work was published in multiple issues of

0 to 9 magazine ''0 to 9'' was a literary magazine that was published between 1967 and 1969 edited by Vito Acconci and Bernadette Mayer in New York City. Produced cheaply with a small print run, ''0 to 9s content explored issues around language, performance ...

, a 1960s mimeographed publication which experimented with language and meaning-making. In 1967, Coolidge moved to San Francisco and joined David Meltzer's band, The Serpent Power, as a drummer. He became close with other San Francisco poets of the period as well, including

Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles f ...

, who was an important influence and friend. In 1969, Coolidge produced 17 one-hour programs of experimental audio pieces by himself and others for KPFA, which establish his interest in the sonic properties and materiality of language. He would later elaborate this in a statement he provided for Paul Carroll’s anthology The Young American Poets: “Words have a universe of qualities other than those of descriptive relation: Hardness, Density, Sound-Shape, Vector-Force, & Degrees of Transparency / Opacity.” Often associated with the

Language School A language school is a school where one studies a foreign language. Classes at a language school are usually geared towards, for example, communicative competence in a foreign language. Language learning in such schools typically supplements fo ...

his experience as a

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

drummer and interest in a wide array of subjects including caves, geology,

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

, weather,

Salvador Dalí Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (11 May 190423 January 1989), known as Salvador Dalí ( ; ; ), was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, ...

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian ...

and movies, Coolidge often finds correspondence in his work.

Personal life

Coolidge grew up in Providence, Rhode Island and has lived, among other places, in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

Cambridge (MA) Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 U.S. census was 118, ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

(Italy), and the

Berkshire Hills The Berkshires () are highlands located in western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut in the United States. Generally, "Berkshires" may refer to the range of hills in Massachusetts that lie between the Housatonic and Connecticut River ...

. He currently lives in

Petaluma, California Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

Publications

*''Flag Flutter & U.S. Electric'', (New York: Lines Books, 1966). *''ING'', (New York: Angel Hair, 1968). *(with Tom Veitch) ''To Obtain the Value of the Cake Measure From Zero: A Play in One Act'', (San Francisco: Pants Press, 1970). *''Space'', (New York: Harper & Row, 1970). *''The So: Poems 1966'', (New York: Adventures in Poetry, 1971). *''Suite V'', (New York: Adventures in Poetry, 1973). *''The Maintains'', (San Francisco, CA: This Press, 1974). *''Polaroid'', (New York: Adventures in Poetry / Bolinas, CA: Big Sky, 1975). *''Quartz Hearts'', (San Francisco: This Press, 1978). *''Own Face'', (Lenox, MA: Angel Hair Books, 1978. Reprinted Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1993). *''Smithsonian Depositions & Subject to a Film'', (New York: Vehicle Editions, 1980). *''A Geology'', (Needham, MA: Potes & Poets Press, 1981. Reprinted in 1988 and 1999). *''American Ones'', (Bolinas, CA: Tombouctou, 1981). *''Research'', (Berkeley, CA: Tuumba Press, 1982). *''Mine: The One That Enters the Stories'', (Berkeley, CA: The Figures, 1982). *''Solution Passage: Poems 1978-1981'', (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1986). *''The Crystal Text'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1986. Reprinted Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1995). *''Melencholia'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1987). *''At Egypt'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1988). *''Sound as Thought: Poems 1982-1984'', (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1990). *(with

Ron Padgett Ron Padgett (born June 17, 1942) is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School (art), New York School. ''Great Balls of Fire'', Padgett's first full-length collection of poems, was published in 1969 ...

) ''Supernatural Overtones'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1990). *''Odes of Roba'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1991). *''The Book of During'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1991). *(with

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980) was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. "Guston worked in a number of artistic modes, from Renaissance-inspired figuration to formally accomplis ...

) ''Baffling Means: Writings/Drawings'', (Stockbridge, MA: O-blek Editions, 1991). *(with Michael Gizzi and

John Yau John Yau (born June 5, 1950) is an American poet and critic who lives in New York City. He received his B.A. from Bard College in 1972 and his M.F.A. from Brooklyn College in 1978. He has published over 50 books of poetry, artists' books, ficti ...

) ''Lowell Connector: Lines & Shots from Kerouac's Town'', (West Stockbridge, MA: Hard Press, 1993). *(with

Larry Fagin Larry Fagin (July 21, 1937 – May 27, 2017) was an American poet, editor, publisher, and teacher, and a member of the New York School. Biography Born in Far Rockaway, New York City, Larry Fagin grew up in New York, Hollywood, and Europe. He beg ...

) ''On the Pumice of Morons'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1993). *''The ROVA Improvisations'', (Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1994). *''Registers (People in All)'', (Avenue B, 1994). *''For

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establis ...

'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 1995). *''The Names'', (Brightlingsea, Essex: Active in Airtime, 1997). *''Now It's Jazz: Writings on Kerouac & The Sounds'', (Albuquerque, NM: Living Batch, 1999). *(with

Keith Waldrop Bernard Keith Waldrop (December 11, 1932 – July 27, 2023) was an American poet, translator, publisher, and academic. He won the National Book Award for Poetry for his 2009 collection ''Transcendental Studies: A Trilogy''. Early life and educ ...

) ''Bomb'', (New York: Granary Books, 2000). *''Alien Tatters'', (Berkeley, CA: Atelos, 2000). *''On The Nameways, Volume 1'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 2000). *''On The Nameways, Volume 2'', (Great Barrington, MA: The Figures, 2001). *''Far Out West'', (New York: Adventures in Poetry, 2001). *''On the Slates'', (Oakland, CA: Tougher Disguises, 2002). *''Counting on Planet Zero'', (Wendell, MA : Fewer & Further Press, 2007). *''The Act of Providence'', (Qua Press, 2010). * ''This Time We Are Both'', (Ugly Duckling Press, 2010). * ''Book Beginning What and Ending Away'', (Fence Books, 2013). * ''88 Sonnets'', (Fence Books, 2013). * ''Selected Poems: 1962-1985,'' (Station Hill Press, 2017)edited by Clark Coolidge and

, with an introduction by Bill Berkson * ''The Crystal Text'', published by City Lights Publishers. 11/14/2023.

As editor

*''Heart of the Breath: Poems 1979-1992'' by Jim Brody. Hard Press Editions, 1996 *''Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations''. Berkeley, CA:

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, 2010

References

External links

Clark Coolidge Homepage
@ the Electronic Poetry Center
''From Notebooks (1976-1982)''
from ''Code of Signals'', edited by Michael Palmer (

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

file at Duration Press, pages 43–56)
''A Symposium on Clark Coolidge,''
edited by

Ron Silliman Ron Silliman (born August 5, 1946) is an American poet. He has written and edited over 30 books, and has had his poetry and criticism translated into 12 languages. He is often associated with language poetry. Between 1979 and 2004, Silliman w ...

, published as No. 5 of ''Stations'' magazine, Winter, 1978 (

file at Eclipse Archivebr>

Clark Coolidge Feature
@ ''

Jacket Magazine ''Jacket'' was an online literary periodical founded by the Australian poet John Tranter, published from 1997-2010. The first issue was in October 1997. Until 2010, each new number of the magazine was posted at the website piece by piece unti ...

'' features poems, essays, interviews
Clark Coolidge on Jack Kerouac"Add-Verse" a poetry-photo-video project Coolidge participated in
In this piece,

notes that Coolidge has produced "the finest critical writing I’ve ever read on Kerouac’s work".
Review of Clark Coolidge's This Time We Are Both
{{DEFAULTSORT:Coolidge, Clark 1939 births American male poets Classical High School alumni Language poets People from Petaluma, California Living people Writers from Providence, Rhode Island