Jack Spicer

JACK SPICER (1925-1965). The Collected Books of Jack Spicer (Black Sparrow Press, 1975), edited by Robin Blaser, appeared recently and just went into a second (corrected) printing. The same publisher will be bringing out in the near future Jack Spicer's play Troilus, edited and with an essay titled "Sources" by Robin Blaser. With this play we will have a complete record of what Jack Spicer considered his "dictated" work. Earlier work. 1944-1956, from which period the three poems included here come, will appear in separate volumes, the first of which will be Jack Spicer’s Canon of Early Poems. These poems were finalized by Jack in 1956; he considered the 42 poems included in the Canon those he wished to save. When he left Boston, Jack left these in Robin Blaser's keeping with the mock title A Pook-Up for Rabbi Blasen (Sept. 10, 1956, Boston, Masochistic). The Editors of The Capilano Review wish to thank Robin Blaser, executor of the Spicer Estate, for permission to print the three poems.