Selected Poems from

THE BODY by Michael Benedikt

(Wesleyan University Press, l968)

Poems in l998-2003 updates

[ Last Modified 5/05.  Prior 3/03 ]

Added in 3/03 edition of this webpage: Some Feelings--poem based on painting by Larry Rivers. Added in 5/05: Navigational Enhancements

Besides  Titles of  All Body Poems At This Page  this page has Titles of All Body Poems At This Website

Also,  Links To The 5  Other Pages Of This Website.  Direct Link to our  New-in-'04  Sky page here.  Site Searchbox info here


Selections at this page are drawn mostly from Parts I & II of The Body. Welcoming-Poem just below, is from Part IV.

With portraits of poet by painter Alice Neel (1967) & photographer Rollie McKenna (1968, image just below). Benedikt Bio here


Poem Welcoming You To This Webpage

photo of Benedikt in 1968 by Rollie McKenna

THOUGHTS

Excuse me, isn't that you I see concealed over there
Sizing things up from inside the conning-tower of your head?--
Your eyes like mine, looking out of twin perforations
And gliding around softly beneath the waters.
Strange isn't it that we place such reliance on mere fluids!
Can ducts which punctuate the underground of a field
Examine it at will then, for buried treasure? Are rain-puddles spying on us both even now
And are raindrops tapping on our windows, voyeurs then?
Deep down under all those inert substances, though,
Beneath the liquids & various unobservant stuffs too,
There are spirits--immaterial yet shifting around from foot to foot.


The Art Opening (1967) by Howard Kanowitz. At far left, Benedikt (talking with graphic artist June Hildebrand).
Among NYC art world figures depicted, author/art critic Benedikt also appears a second time, 3rd from right.
At far right, Kynaston McShine, as of '02 Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MOMA--NYC's Museum of Modern Art.


P O E M S   A T  T H I S   P A G E

AIR *
THE AMBITIOUS LUMP  (temporarily in limbo--poem will return in a future edition of this page)
THE CITIES
MOTIONS  (after Man Ray, Surrealist Photographer)
MR. RAINMAN
THE HELPER
THE EUROPEAN SHOE
THE EYE
SOME LITANIES
AN ENORMOUS DANGLING SACK-LIKE NET   (after Rene Magritte, Surrealist Painter) *
3 Love Lyrics set in gardens. Verses with flowers but not flowery verses
TIME  (with illustration by Contemporary Graphic Artist June Hildebrand Abrams)
IN LOVE WITH YOU
PINK BUDS *
A BELOVED HEAD  (Sci-Fi love poem, computer & all ) *
New-in-'03:  SOME FEELINGS   (after 20th Century US painter Larry Rivers)

*  Slightly revised in 3/03 edition--Air, Net, Pink Buds & Beloved Head
*  Slightly revised in 5/05 edition--Beloved Head, Some Feelings

Forthcoming:  PROCESSION (lyrical poem about aging, to appear at this page or at a URL to be announced here)


Titles  of  All  Body poems  online at  the  various  pages  of  this  Website


[ Poems from Part I of The Body ]


AIR

Air, air, you're the distantmost thing I know.
Not even the songs of whales tracing patterns
On top of or beneath the sea, are more inscrutable or beautiful, to me;
You carry sails of travelers to interesting places
And adventurers, sailors, or just plain traders;
You encourage the bicyclist to mount his apparatus
And you're ever-present around swimming-pools
So that when the excessively-dedicated swimmer may emerge
From the water an instant, he'll freeze;
And air, you're famous for hanging around fetid places
Also, ready to clear the dank atmosphere
With a breath of yourself--I’ve found you in
The slums of the intellect even, about to puff
When the mind’s tired after too much travel,
Or choking after contact with unthinking people
And you’re present in poems rescuing one when one’s feeling somewhat stifled
Poised like a bouquet there, sprightly and colorful.


THE AMBITIOUS LUMP

[Poem On Extended Vacation. To Return Anon]


THE CITIES

Tired of poultry, the experimental chemist
Slouched under the laboratory light.
His assistant, Phyllis, for whom he had
An eye, had crept out at exactly five
Leaving the mad old man there
Beneath all the flourescent tubes.

Soon, through the window, the lunar
Rays shone. The landscape brilliantly
Lit up, by the reflections from frost.
But the old man lay among the poultry
Droppings, a victim, as local police termed it,
Of  "Desperate, Unrequited Love."

Phyllis' life was changed by the event.
No sooner had she attended Georg's
Funeral, than she abandoned her staid old ways.
Parties all night, festivals at which
Her nudity glittered with the aspics,
Poetry readings in little cellar bars!

--Her life was changed. She bought a dog.
In the park, for free, they
Fondled her near The Fountain. Enough
Had soon happened to fill a lifetime.
Then, tired of the Arts & Sciences of Men,
Phyllis crept home to gentle Peoria.

In Peoria, Phyllis was somehow unsatisfied.
Her restless ways became apparent
To her parents, and one day, as she
Was returning from the corner soda parlor
With the local plumber, her parents
Drew her aside. "Our dear Phyll," they

Said, "you are insufficiently happy here.
You are not the little girl we knew
Who went wincing up to the attic
Tenderly, when struck, and would not
Come down for a week; you seem more hip
Now, and very unlikely to stay

More than an unhappy few months more here.
Why don't you get out and leave now?"
Phyllis filled her bags with their money
And went down the highway, a victim
Of inherited kindliness, troubled
By remembrances of recent events....


MOTIONS

After Man Ray, Surrealist Photographer (Photo: Man Ray's 1920 Surrealist object, 'The Mystery of Isadore Ducasse')

Carrying in the black bundle
                                                    the evening paused on the roadway
To tug at the ribbons around it
                                                       to peek beneath the wrapping-paper
While mumbling to itself
Then carried it another fifty feet
And stopped by the roadside
                                                 sat down
And turned it upsidedown shook the package listened to it rattle
Then trotted away
                               into the privacy of a little group of roadside trees...
It returned smiling
                                  but carrying nothing
O lovely unpredictable
                                        hour

----------------------

Note: Photo is of lost 1920 original picturing object, wrapped in ropes & burlap. Man Ray reconstructed ominous object in l962.
     Contemporary 'packaging' artist Christo was greatly inspired by Man Ray's haunting image, from circa l960's to the present.


MR. RAINMAN

In the rain, an angry outcry: 'Get your hands off my trickling face'!
A damp rug
                    my chilled hands
Show that we have a rather sinister visitor:
                                                                    A smudge
                                                                    in a soggy grey coat
And shoes that hiss on the diningroom table

We thought he simply needed a shave but that shadow on Mr. Rainman's cheek            
       actually meant that he was almost completely covered with mosses
       and various other greens growing there...

O my pink-cheeked, innocent young daughter
O my daughter in your ancient but hardly yellowed white pinafore
       what are you doing peeking at him shyly at midnight through the skylight
                                   and then with puckered lips sliding down towards him here
                                                                                                            --sailing straight down the bannister

You stand out enough!


THE HELPER

To be helpful
To lift up someone's eyelid at midnight
To observe their lack of vigor
To grasp them by one arm and drag them out of the room and downstairs
And dress them in an old oilskin against black insects buzzing around a lamp in the hall
Then to drag them down the front flight of stairs
And to place them in the trunk of the car, afterwards locking it carefully for safety
Then to drive them out to the country
Down all those dark, deserted roads, with only the black night butterflies alert
And there, in the country, to find a quiet, relaxing place
Perhaps on a knoll or in a darkness-shrouded field or under a bridge with the water tricklings
      writing maledictions over everything
And to bury them there
In the oilskin
With the insects still keeping their distance
And to bury them deeply and undiscoverably

--To be this helpful
Is unappreciated, often.


THE EUROPEAN SHOE

The European Shoe is covered with grass and reed, bound up and wound around
      so that it may slip easily over the wearer's head.

In case you are an aircraft pilot, you must take care that the European Shoe does not
     creep off your foot, and begin to make its way carefully across the fusilage.

The European Shoe pressed against the fugitive's nose, preventing it from imminent
      departure.

The European Shoe spends summers in delightful ways. A lady feels its subtle and
      unexpected pressure the length of her decolletage. (It winters in pain).

That time I lent you my European Shoe you departed with a look of grandeur, and in
      total disrepair.

The European Shoe knocks on the door of the carefree farmerette. "The harvest
      has been gathered in, ha, ha," it says, moving shyly forth along the edge of the couch.

I pointed to the European Shoe. I ate the European Shoe. I married the European Shoe.

Tears fall from the eye of the European Shoe as it waves goodbye to us from the back
      balcony of the speeding train.

It helps an old lady, extremely crippled and arthritic, move an enormous cornerstone.
     It invents a watch which, when wound up tightly, flies completely to pieces.

It was a simple and dignified ceremony, distinguished for its gales of uncontrollable
      laughter, in which I married the European Shoe.

If it rains, the European Shoe becomes very heavy. I failed to cross the river,
      where thousands of European Shoes lay capsized.

And so we lived alone, we two, the envy of our neighborhood,
      the delight of our lively hordes of children.

I saw a flightful of graceful sparrows heading to distant, half-forgotten islands over the
      distant seas; and in the midst of that annually questing company,
      I saw the European Shoe.

It never harmed anyone, and yet it never really helped anyone.

Gaily it sets out into the depths of my profoundest closet, to do battle with the dusts
      of summer....


THE EYE

The narcissist's eye is blue, fringed with white and covered with tempting salad leaves

The purse-stealer's eye is yellow.

The eye of the non-combatant is white. In the center is a target rendered in green
      and black.

The voluptuary's eye comes to a point. It is like a silo, the echo of a halo.

The gravedigger's eye is hollow. It is surrounded by a thoroughly contemporary
      serenity.

The dynamite salesman's eye is like a pool, in which he who leans to drink may be lost.
      Drifting forever, like a cloud.

The maiden's eye is tucked under.

The billiard-player's eye comes to a point. It is like a mild wine. Each billiard-player
      suffers from imperfect nostalgia.

The ghost's eye is green.

The poet's eye is like a candy

The battleship captain's eye is like the light that falls in a glen, when the doe has done
      with drinking.

The eye of the Realist is inflatable!


Titles of Body Poems At This Page


[ Poems from Part II of THE BODY ]


SOME LITANIES

(FOUR POEM-PLAYLETS)

1.

Was the arrangement made between the two couples legal?

No.

Did they spread the word around?

No.

Have you visited the two couples lately? Did you have an interesting time? Was it illegal?

No.

What was the decoration like?

It was furnished in Swedish "modern." Woven strings were hanging down in the living-room.
A bird flew in the window and out again.

Will you ever marry?

No.

Have you ever been married?

I don't remember.

Do you love your husband?

Yes.

2.

May I please have this dance?

No.

May I please have that dance?

No.

Aren't you going to wear anything to the dance?

Yes.

Are you a good dancer?

Yes.

Do you know how to dance?

No.

May I in that case have your company during the dance they decide to play at midnight, whatever it is?
I have fallen in love with your eyes, lips, hands and hair.

No.

3.

During the lapse of several years, during which I spent most of my time in Barcelona, was the magazine
I edited published?

Yes.

During the lapse of several years, during which I spent most of my time in Barcelona, was the magazine
I edited published?

No.

Aren't you absolutely sure?

No.

Aren't you absolutely sure?

Yes

Will you ever come to Barcelona with me?

No. I am afraid to leave behind the business affairs of the magazine, of which I am General Manager.

Are you really that conscientious?

No.

4.

Would you care to deal him a death-dealing blow?

No.

Would you care to pay him a little visit?

No.

Would you care to improve the promptness of his laundry service by making persistent enquiries?

No.

Are you really his legal guardian?

No.

Would you care to hand him this large can of fortified beeswax?

No.

Do you have a favorite hobby?

Yes. Devoting myself entirely to that boy!


AN ENORMOUS DANGLING SACK-LIKE NET

After Rene Magritte, Surrealist Painter

A large weight lay inside the enormous dangling sack-like net. When the breeze pressed forth, it swung
in the holder's hand; then, bit by bit, it came to a full stop.

Stooping down, we could see the outlines of the weight: they were those of a small building, a country-house.
It was surrounded by apple-trees in flower. Young men in rough work-clothes, with rough-hewn ways,
had propped up ladders and were climbing in the branches, gathering apples.

The gestures they made, so practical & so firm, so simple and yet so inadvertently beautiful,
seemed somehow to admonish the stranger to take heart....


THREE LOVE LYRICS


'Time' illustration by June Hildebrand
Above:  Illustration for poem by contemporary graphic artist June Hildebrand Abrams. In hatband: a flower.

TIME

                                                                 The cleft in my hat
                                                                          is bearing a little soot
                                                                 A seed falls
                                                                  --Suddenly
                                                  A few fanning spears
                                                                 Like grass
                                                                                   are there;
                                                                 And now a red flower...


IN LOVE WITH YOU

Would you mind telling me exactly what your personal symbol is, a tendril?
If so, my little cottage will soon be vine-covered.
Its faithful old caretaker will go to the tool-shed and find his gardening spade and wheelbarrow
      woven together with a lovely greenish, spidery tracing
And then his fingers, arms, and legs. There could come as a matter of fact
A sobbing from from all the help there--ah, what training for any lazy maids!
And even though the smoke which whirls as it escapes the chimney
Will take on the shape of an arbor in which we may never sit
What a definite reminder of yourself you will have established, weaving it tightly
     around my heart and its various outbuildings.
Ah!--How much better than if you had revealed
That you had chosen for your personal symbol something like hogwort,
      or liverwurst...


PINK BUDS

To a Lady Gone Away West For The Summertime

Pink buds pink buds ah look my my how pretty
Two of them are surely blossoming there
On the lawn of your vacation estate 'way out west and far out in the country
Two more peek out from beneath the lofty linden-tree
Parked at the side of your driveway and yet another set
No doubt flourishes just because you're there
Even in the shadows beneath that roadside covered wagon relic somebody left standing out all century

Pink buds pink buds my my how nice
This banner I'm in the midst of emblazoning for my love
Meant to be highly symbolic of "Summertime and Passionate Yearning of Youth"
Utilizes this common motif
Pink buds I see you do not peek
Out of the flag of my landlord
Pink beds you're also the two reddish stone paperweights which she found on a mesa
      and gave me as souvenirs late last summer
And which I vainly place on the sheaves of my thinking and musing
To try and hold memories of my absent love down

Pink beds pink buds ah yes ah yes I particularly recall two
Night-blooming I recall they flower forth when I touch them
After tiptoeing discreetly Indian-style
Across the bosom of You, my ever-so-bountiful one!
Visiting O my generous Persephone
Your radiant place in the country all dark summer long.


Titles of Body Poems At This Page


[ Poems from Part III of The Body ]


A BELOVED HEAD

A beloved head, yes a truly beloved head he thought--although the mouth part was operated by a series
      of small treadles set into the floorboards and conveniently located in every room
The ears by various light-switches
And the eyes by twin faucets, mounted inside the writing-desk.
The hair was operated by a kind of abacus
Which helped him to keep track of various alluring developments there
--Sometimes, the fetching way it framed her lovely face or hung down loose and flowed across her shoulders
Could envelop the attention of The Operator.

The body of the beloved was operated from an immense panel
Covered with hundreds of dials and flashing lights, hard-wired to an immense computer behind the wall up there.
One had to climb up to it by means of a ladder
Daring that only after consulting the manual which came with either the previous computer,
          or the previous beloved, sometimes The Operator just can't remember which
--How often she'd suddenly whirl around to turn towards him
Smiling inexplicably, yet with a gesture so gentle and rare
That he himself could hardly believe that he'd created it!

--Much less the captivating way she arched her back and threw her head back,
          or stretched out her arms in even the most commonplace of yawns;
Or the winsome way in which she reached up and adjusted earrings
         in her long blonde hair, or bent over after bathing to comb it all out again
         leaving him incredulous and almost trembling then
(Perhaps by chance, he'd accidentally brushed up against some tiny throttle
         located in the vicinity of her knee?)

True, sometimes even a controlling mind collapses.
Just look at the way The Operator's slumped over now.
It's evening, he's tired, his head hurts,
His hand's exhausted after manning all those controls all day,
--In fact, he's fallen asleep there in his chair

While with eyes ablaze, the beloved is passingthe time until his next awakening
By sitting around and sewing--presently the sleeve
       of a doll's kimono which she's whimsically decided to give to a Japanese friend of hers who collects such things...

------------------

Note: Yes, a computer appeared in the same role in the 1968 original of this sci-fi love poem about an apparently computerized,
          aeemingly robotic beloved--or rather, about a would-be controlling mind which isn't as successfully controlling as it likes to thinks it is.


SOME FEELINGS

After a painting by Larry Rivers ('Parts of The Face'). Labels below are in French)

The feelings go up into the air

Ascending from individuals at various angles
Rising in lines that go straight until they bump
        into something--treetops, a flagpole, a tall building-wall,
Gargoyles of noses of people leaning out of windows
Music (all those ascending feelings pausing briefly, baffled,
        but then sifting little by little through big bass notes blaring from a booming radio);
Balloons escaped from the hands of crying children
                                                                                    birds, raindrops
                                                                                             a blimp, some jets

Then as they near the top of the sky suddenly those feelings speed up considerably
Piercing the highest clouds and rising so swiftly that they seem to transcend the world of objects entirely

Only somebody  lately in the throes of particularly powerful emotions
                                                                                                                             may see
Even from ground-level
That each feeling remains connected by a thread, to a face or a forehead, or an arm or a leg
And that individuals--
When  in the throes of particularly intense emotions--

Resemble porcupines or pincushions.

------------

Note: Dedication of these verses refer to a 1961 Larry Rivers canvas. Dedication was inadvertently omitted from The Body, but is restored here.
          Dedication appears in the lst publication of this poem in a mid-1960's litmag--possibly Quarterly Review of Literature,
          ed. Ted & Renee Weiss, probably Art & Literature, ed. John Ashbery et al.


Titles of Body Poems At This Page


Poems at this page first appeared in THE BODY by Michael Benedikt (Wesleyan U. Press Poetry Program, l968).
© l968 by Michael Benedikt. Revisions of these poems ('Webversions'), © l998-2003 by Michael Benedikt.

All rights to poems reserved by Author. For poetry reprint or other permissions, e-mail benedit3@aol.com
Illustration by J.H.A. for "Time" © 1965 June Hildebrand from Eight Poems by Michael Benedikt
(a limited edition portfolio printed by Igal Roodenko, l965)


Top of Page


FORTHCOMING  TO  THIS  PAGE :
OTHER  POEMS  FROM  PARTS  I  &  II  &  OTHER  SECTIONS  OF  THE BODY.

Vine & Flowers
by June Hildebrand Abrams


TITLES  OF  ALL  BODY  POEMS  AT  THIS  WEBSITE

Most of the poems are at this page, but several appear at two other Body-related pages

TITLES  IN  BLUE=POEMS  AT  THIS  PAGE
TITLES IN PURPLE=POEMS AT   DARK LOVE POEMS  PAGE
TITLES IN ORANGE=POEMS AT   HALLOWEEN-&-HORROR  PAGE

Note: Listed  below  are  all  poems  which  appeared in Parts  I  &  II  of the original  l968  edition  of  THE  BODY)

 I

AIR
THE CITIES
MOTIONS
MR. RAINMAN (at this webpage & also at Halloween-&-Horror Poems page)
THE EYE OF THE ASSASSIN  (at Halloween page)
THE EUROPEAN SHOE
FRAUDULENT DAYS
THE AMBITIOUS LUMP (Poem to return to this page)
MUTUAL MORTIFICATIONS
PROCESSION  (forthcoming to this page)
DIVINE LOVE (at Dark Love Poems page)
THE AIDER (retitled as THE HELPER at this webpage & also at Halloween page)
THE EYE

 II

SOME LITANIES
HIDING-PLACE
TIME
IN LOVE WITH YOU
PINK BUDS
TULIPS
THE GRAND GUIGNOLS OF LOVE (Dark Love Poems page)
THE GREAT DIVAN (retitled as SEXTETTE: THE GREAT DIVAN (Dark Love Poems page)
SOME OLD MEN (Halloween page)
AN ENORMOUS DANGLING SACK-LIKE NET
TEARS  (At Thematic Index page. 'Concrete poem 'adapted as Performance Art. Rededicated in '01 as memorial to WTC tragedy)

 III & IV
Listed below are selected poems from later sections of The Body online at this 6-page website

THOUGHTS
A BELOVED HEAD
SOME FEELINGS
EVENTS BY MOONLIGHT (Dark Love Poems page)
JOY (Dark Love Poems page)
THE VILLAIN (Halloween page)
THE WINGS OF THE NOSE (Halloween page)
THE DEBRIS OF THE BODY (Halloween page)
BEFORE GOING ON (Dark Love Poems page)

TITLES  IN  BLUE=POEMS  AT  THIS  PAGE
TITLES IN PURPLE=POEMS AT   DARK LOVE POEMS  PAGE
TITLES IN ORANGE=POEMS AT   HALLOWEEN-&-HORROR  PAGE


Top of   TITLES  OF  ALL  BODY  POEMS  AT  THIS  WEBSITE

Return-Link to TITLES OF  BODY  POEMS AT THIS PAGE  With Links To Poems

Top of Entire Page


Website  Contents

Links To 5 Other Pages of This BODY-SKY Website

Page 1--Home Page

1968 & 1998 photos of Benedikt & a more complete Bio. than appears here.

Page 2--Selections from THE BODY

This Page, with Selected Poems by a contemporary US Poet of note. From much-anthologized first book. Subjects in The Body (l968) range from droll to dark.  In many poems, body parts cavort. Surrealist 'Black Humor' abounds. Quoth a reviewer writing in 1969 in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse--in which, earlier in the 1960's many poems from Body first appeared: 'Benedikt's poems are a highly serious form of play.' (Many other critics have commented on Author's sense of humor). This Selections page includes Lyric & Narrative poems--as well as works in unusual poetic genres such as: modern litanies, 'list poems' & 'concrete' poems. This 'Selected' page also has examples of verse with long lines extending into strophes and verging on prose poetry--a genre dispensing with the line-break altogether. After Sky (l970), Benedikt wrote prose poems exclusively for 6 years. They are collected in Mole Notes (1971); and Night Cries (l976). Titles of the many 1960's literary magazines in which Body and Sky poems first appeared are given at this site's closing page (p. 6--Thematic Index).

Page 3--'Dark Love Poems'

Dark page from The Body. For College-Level & Above Only, please. Page also has one, thus far uncollected, 1963 Poem.

Page 4--'Spooky Poems for Halloween & All Year Round'

Particularly eerie poems from  The Body. With large-font versions of "The Helper" & "Mr. Rainman" residing at (of all places) an Award-Winning Halloween-&-Horror Page. Includes 1 poem from Sky.

Page 5--Selections from SKY

With 21st Cent. updates of Selected Verse from Benedikt's 2nd poetry book.  Sky also has long lines extending into strophes & verging on prose poetry--a genre dispensing with the line-break altogether.  The many 1960's literary magazines in which poems from both Body and Sky were first published are listed at this website's closing page (p. 6--Thematic Index). Note:  After Sky (l970) , Benedikt wrote prose poems exclusively for 6 years. Those prose poems are collected in Mole Notes (1971); and Night Cries (l976). Links to sites with selections from Benedikt's prose poem books are here

Page 6--Thematic Index to THE BODY and SKY

Index of Topics in The Body and Sky. A college-level teacher & student modern poetry resource listing & classifying by topic, all poems in Benedikt's first two poetry books. With Notes & Commentary on some thematic categories. So far, comments at page focus especially on the philosophy behind both poetry books, on the close relationship of the poetry to the visual arts (such as Surrealism, Pop Art & Minimalist Art & 1960's 'Happenings"); & on various innovative poetic techniques explored in both books. Index may be helpful as a teaching aid for later 20th Century Poetry classes & courses. May also be useful to Graduate students writing Modern Poetry theses & Undergraduate students writing Modern Poetry term-papers. General Readers seeking an overview of poetry á la Benedikt may enjoy Notes & Commentary. With unusual visual arts related photos from Benedikt's 1960's Archive. New at Thematic Index: Info on Benedikt's literary emphemera published prior to The Body (1968) & Sky (1970), including chapbook Changes (1961).

Searchbox. Search all 6 pages of this site from near top of  Thematic Index.


Carole Schneemann in Event based poem
entitled 'Tears'

Above: Photo from Thematic Index--1968 'Pocket Theater' event by Benedikt based on Body poem 'Tears.'
'Tears' (the poem) appears at Thematic Index. It was added to that page in '01 in memory of 911WTC Tragedy in NYC.
At Center: "Happening" creator & Performance artist Carolee Schneemann. Benedikt at right.

Thematic Index has larger version of photo & complete caption--with info on this & poet's other later 1960's Poetry & Theater events. Top


Brief Benedikt Bio.

Complete bio. appears in Who's Who in America; Who's Who in World; Who's Who in Entertainment, etc.

Selections from Benedikt's other poetry books appear at listings at end-of-page for  Other Benedikt Websites:

Contemporary US Poet Michael Benedikt's publications include 5 collections of poetry: The Badminton at Great Barrington; or Gustave Mahler & The Chattanooga Choo-Choo (University of Pittsburgh Press, l980)--a sequence of poems about the joys & sorrows of love; & with Wesleyan University Press Night Cries (prose poems, l976); Mole Notes (prose poems, l971); Sky (l970); and The Body (l968). His work appears in ca. 70 anthologies of US poetry.  Relatively recent poetry in Agni, Iowa Review, Jerusalem ReviewLips, Michigan Quarterly Review, The New Republic, New York Quarterly, Partisan Review, The Paris Review & Washington Square.

Anthologies of poetry in translation under Benedikt's editorship are The Prose Poem: An International Anthology (Dell/Laurel, l976); and The Poetry of Surrealism (Little, Brown & Co., l974). He's also co-Editor &Translator, with theatre critic George E. Wellwarth, of 3 anthos. of 20th-Century European plays: Modern French Theatre: The Avant-Garde, Dada, & Surrealism (E.P. Dutton, l964); Post-War German Theatre (Dutton, l967); and Modern Spanish Theatre (Dutton, l969). He's the editor of Theatre Experiment: American Plays (Doubleday, l967). Benedikt is a former Associate Ed. of Art News and Art International. A former Poetry Editor of The Paris Review, his editorial selections are represented in The Paris Review Anthology (Norton, l990).

Benedikt taught Literature & Creative Writing as Visiting Prof. at Bennington, Sarah Lawrence, Vassar, Hampshire College and Boston University. Grants and Awards for poems published in print media have included a Guggenheim Grant, a NY State Council On The Arts (Creative Artists Public Service) Grant; and an National Endowment for The Arts Award & an NEA Fellowship. Readings from his poetry at many colleges and universities around the USA, particularly in N.E. & S.E. USA & in the Mid-West.  In l986 he gave a videotaped 'retrospective' reading at invitation of Library of Congress. Most recent readings at several Barnes & Noble 'Superstores' in the NY Metro area. A graduate of NYU's Washington Square College & Columbia University, he's a long-term resident of Upper West Side Manhattan. E-mail: benedit3@aol.com


Photo near top of page: Benedikt in devilish mood in Manhattan Apt ca. 1968 (year Body was published).  By Rollie McKenna
Below: Alice Neel Portrait of poet Benedikt in 1967

Note: Neel is renowned for her dramatic, Expressionistic renderings of NYC art figures, including poets such as Frank O'Hara.
Rebellious young Benedikt tried to avoid any appearance of agitation. Neel captured look of determination.
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Alice Neel: Benedikt 1967


Info re background of Benedikt 's Y2K-era Websites via feature article at About.com
'The Compleat Michael Benedikt--Poet Laureate of The Net'

More About Author at Academy of American Poets
Poet Pages Searchbox--The Academy of American Poets


Photo & Welcoming-Poem

TITLES OF POEMS AT THIS PAGE  with Links to Poems

TITLES  OF  ALL  BODY  POEMS  AT  THIS  WEBSITE

Links  to  Other  Pages  of  This  BODY-SKY  Website

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OTHER BENEDIKT WEBSITES

SITES WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS OTHER PUBLISHED POETRY BOOKS

After completing THE BODY (l968) and SKY (l970), Benedikt wrote Prose Poems exclusively until l976.
They appear in his 3rd poetry book MOLE NOTES (l971) and his 4th, NIGHT CRIES (l976).

Selections from N.C. are available online at:

Brief Prose Poems
Prose Poems & Microfictions

A couple of MOLE NOTES are online at:
Theater, Film, & TV Poems

And there's another prose poem from MOLE NOTES at--of all places--a music-enhanced Xmas Site:
'Xmas On Bay State Road' & Other Poems

Selections from Benedikt's 5th & most recent book of poetry at:
The Badminton at Great Barrington

Manuscript-In-Progress At:
The Thesaurus & Other New Verse


Links  to  Other  Pages  Of  This  BODY-SKY  Website

Next Page of This Site--'Dark Love Poems'

BODY-SKY Home Page


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