Paul Blackburn was one of the leading poets of his time. He influenced contemporary literature through his poetry, translations and the encouragement and support he offered to fellow poets. Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

He was born in Saint Albans, Vermont, November 24th 1926. His parents, William Gordon Blackburn and Frances Frost (also a poet, novelist and author of children's books) separated when Blackburn was three and a half. Thereafter, he was cared for primarily by his maternal grandparents on their farm in St. Albans until he was fourteen, when his mother took him to New York City to live with her in Greenwich Village. He began writing poetry in his late teens under her encouragement. St. ... Official language(s) None Capital Montpelier Largest city Burlington Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 43th 24,923 km² 130 km 260 km 3. ... 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Empire State Building (right) and the Chrysler Building (left) are easily recognized symbols of New York City to the world. ... Greenwich Village (pronounced Grennich Village; also known as the West Village or simply the Village) is a largely residential area on the west side of downtown (southern) Manhattan in New York City. ...

Shortly after enrolling in New York University in 1945, Blackburn joined the army hoping to be sent overseas. However the war ended soon after and he spent the rest of his service as a laboratory technician in Colorado. In 1947 he returned to NYU; he transferred in 1949 to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, graduating in 1950. New York University (NYU) is a major research university in New York City. ... 1945 (MCMXLV) was a common year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Official language(s) English Capital Denver Largest city Denver Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 8th 269,837 km² 451 km 612 km 0. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) is a common year starting on Saturday. ... The University of Wisconsin is a public university in the state of Wisconsin. ... // Person Name Traditionally, Madison was a surname, meaning son of Maud. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

It was during these college years that Blackburn first became influenced by Ezra Pound, and began corresponding with him while at the University of Wisconsin. He hitchhiked to Washington D.C. several times to visit him at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. Via Pound, he came into contact with Robert Creeley, which led to links with Cid Corman, Denise Levertov, Charles Olson, Joel Oppenheimer and Jonathan Williams. Through this contact came an ancillary involvement with the first two issues of Creeley’s magazine, Black Mountain Review, which resulted in the occasional inclusion of Blackburn in the Black Mountain school of poets out in her introduction to the Collected Poems, "Blackburn always opposed the division of poets into schools and did not like the role of Black Mountain poet into which he was cast by Donald Allen’s anthology The New American Poetry (1960). He embraced all types of poetry, citing the value of 'all work, if you work 'em right.'" (E. Jarolim in The Collected Poems Of Paul Blackburn, 1985) Ezra Pound in 1913. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Robert Creeley (May 21, 1926 - March 30, 2005) was an American poet, author of more than sixty books, and usually associated with the Black Mountain poets, though his verse aesthetic diverged from that schools. ... Cid Corman (1924 - March 12, 2004) was an American poet, translator and editor who was a key figure in the history of American poetry in the second half of the 20th century. ... Denise Levertov (October 24, 1923 - December 20, 1997) was a British born American poet. ... Charles Olson (27 December 1910 - 10 January 1970) was an important 2nd generation American modernist poet who was a crucial link between earlier figures like Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and such later avant garde groups as the Beats and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. He... The name Jonathan Williams can refer to a number of people: Jonathan Williams, the engineer Jonathan Williams, the architect Jonathan Williams, the Formula 1 driver Jonathan Williams, the poet and publisher This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ... The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called the Projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered around Black Mountain College. ... 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the year. ...

It was also Pound who pointed Blackburn in the direction of Provençal poetry, and he studied the languages of Provence while at the University of Wisconsin. His work on Provençal translations intensified following the 1953 publication of a slim selection of the poems, and the awarding the following year of a Fulbright Fellowship to study Provençal language and literature in France. He continued translating Provençal poetry for the rest of his life. It wasn’t until after his death that the work was fully published. Provençal (Prouvençau in Provençal language) is one of several dialects of the Romance language Occitan, which is spoken by a minority of people in southern France and other areas of France. ... 1953 (MCMLIII) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... The Fulbright Program is program of educational grants (Fulbright Fellowships) sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State. ...

Blackburn was also well-known for his translations from Spanish of the medieval epic Poema del Mio Cid, of poetry by Lorca, Paz, Picasso, and of fiction by Julio Cortázar. Julio Cortázar (August 26, 1914 – February 12, 1984) was an Argentine intellectual and author of several experimental novels and many short stories. ...

Blackburn played an important part in the poetry community, particularly in New York, where he helped fledgling poets develop, and provided emotional support and opportunities to read for both unknown and established writers in the various reading series with which he was involved. He organized readings that offered work from the Beats, the New York School, the Deep Image Poets, and the Black Mountain Poets. Clayton Eshleman has written, "Many, not just a few, but many poets alive today are beholden to him for a basic artistic kindness, for readings, yes, and for advice, but more humanly for a kind of comradeship that very few poets are willing to give." The readings he organized were the direct progenitors to the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church on the Bowery. The term beat generation was introduced by Jack Kerouac in approximately 1948 to describe his social circle to the novelist John Clellon Holmes (who published an early novel about the beat generation, titled Go, in 1952, along with a manifesto of sorts in the New York Times Magazine: This is... The New York School was an informal group of American poets and painters active in 1950s New York City. ... Deep image is a term coined by Jerome Rothenberg and Robert Kelly in the second issue of Trobar, and was used to describe poetry written by him and by Robert Kelly, Diane Wakoski and Clayton Eshleman. ... The Black Mountain poets, sometimes called the Projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered around Black Mountain College. ... Clayton Eshleman (born June 1, 1935) is an American poet. ... The Bowery is a very well-known street in Manhattan that more or less marks the boundary between Chinatown and Little Italy on one side and the Lower East Side on the other — running from Chatham Square in the south to Astor Place in the north. ...

Until the mid-1960s Blackburn supported himself through various print-shop, editorial and translating jobs, including a short stint as poetry editor of The Nation. Some of his early jobs included working in-house on encyclopedias, and writing free lance reviews. By the mid-60s he began receiving offers of teaching positions, and in 1965, 1966 and 1967 he directed workshops at the Aspen Writers' Conference. He was Poet-In-Residence at City College of New York in 1966-67. A Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967 enabled him to return to Europe to work on his translations and poetry. Upon returning to the U.S. he supported himself through reading tours and teaching at the State University of New York at Cortland. The Nation is the name of several newspapers, periodicals or magazines in different countries, including: The Nation, an Irish Nationalist newspaper founded by Thomas Davis and Charles Gavan Duffy in the 1840s. ... 1965 (MCMLXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link goes to calendar). ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The City College of The City University of New York (known more commonly as City College of New York or simply City College, CCNY, or colloquially as City) is a senior college of the City University of New York, in New York City. ... Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The State University of New York (acronym SUNY; usually pronounced SOO-nee) is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. ... Cortland may refer to: An alien named Cortland, Cort(Clumsy Oddball Retarded Turd) for short. ...

Blackburn married three times: to Winifred Grey McCarthy from 1954 to 1958; Sara Golden from 1963 to 1967; and Joan Diane Miller in 1968, with whom he had his son, Carlos T. in 1969.

Paul Blackburn died of esophageal cancer in Cortland, NY, September 1971. Esophageal cancer is malignancy of the esophagus. ...

Though Blackburn never set out to fully articulate his poetics, a good summation is the following piece from 1954: 1954 (MCMLIV) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

STATEMENT

 My poetry may not be typically American, or at least in matter, not 

solely so: but I think it does make use of certain techniques which, even when not invented by American poets, find their particular exponents there in contemporary letters, from Pound & Doctor Williams, to younger writers like Paul Carroll or Duncan or Creeley.

 Techniques of juxtaposition. Techniques of speech rhythms, 

sometimes very intense, sometimes developed slowly, as one would have

 conversation with a friend. 

Personally, I affirm two things: the possibility of warmth & contact in the human relationship : as juxtaposed against the materialistic pig of a technological world, where relationships are only “useful” i.e., exploited, either

 psychologically or materially. 

2°, the possibility of s o n g within that world: which is like saying ‘yes’ to sunlight.

 On the matter of song: I believe there must be a return toward the 

musical structure of poetry, just as there must be, for certain people at least, a return to warmth within a relationship.

However impractical that may seem in a society controlled in some of its most intimate aspects by monstrous, which are totally irresponsible, corporations, organized for the greatest gain of the most profit: and whose natural growth, like that of any organism, is toward monopoly, self-support, self-completion, self-

 perpetuation, 

and eventually self-competition and self-destruction.

 In a world that is so quickly losing its individuals, it can only be the 

individuals who persist, who can work any change of direction, i.e. control the machines, or destroy them.

 Machines can be very beneficent as means 

to a better

 (materially better) life, as either 

democratizing or socializing agents. But as a means to control for the limited number of men who now own them,

(but the president or general manager of the corporation really owns nothing but his own salary (and his power) so that even the controlling minds of these gigantic corporate machines are irresponsible. That is, not subject to the effects of their own decisions)

(and the personnel, the individuals are replaceable, all the way to the top. The machine, the organisation, has itself created the position and will function without the individual, has, in that sense created the person to fill the ‘p o s i t i o n’

 and its own needs) so that 

when, in these upper reaches, the ‘organisation’ the machine itself becomes master, it can only mean disaster, global and particular.

 I do not claim that a greater frequency of rhyme than is now made use of 

in American poetry will, in time, set things right.

 Only that if a man could sing the poems his poets write 

— and could understand them — and if

 the poets would sing something from their guts, rather than the queasy contents of same, then that man would stand a better 

chance, of being a whole man, than him who stands or sits and says but ‘Yes’ all day.

Enough man to stand where it is necessary to take a stand.

To give and man enough to receive, LOVE,

 when he finds it offered. 

To take the sun and the goods of the earth, while it lasts. and to

 fight in whatever way he can 

the monstrous machines that try, and will try, to

o b l i t e r a t e him, for

 $1 more. 

(To see the proper layout of STATEMENT, please link to http://jacketmagazine.com/12/blac-stat.html)

In his lifetime Blackburn published thirteen books of original poetry, as well as five major works of translation. Twelve other books were published posthumously. Poetry (ancient Greek: ποιεω (poieo) = I create) is traditionally a written art form (although there is also an ancient and modern poetry which relies mainly upon oral or pictorial representations) in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ...

Bibliography

• The Dissolving Fabric (1955),
• Brooklyn Manhattan Transit: A Bouquet for Flatbush (1960),
• The Nets (1961),
• 16 Sloppy Haiku and a Lyric for Robert Reardon (1966),
• Sing Song (1966),
• The Reardon Poems (1967),
• The Cities (1967),
• In. On. Or About The Premises (1968),
• Two New Poems (1969),
• The Assassination of President McKinley (1970),
• Three Dreams and an Old Poem (1970),
• Gin: Four Journal Pieces (1970),
• The Journals: Blue Mounds Entries (1971),

Translations

• Proensa (1953),
• Poem of the Cid (1966, reprinted 1999),
• End of the Game and Other Stories by Julio Cortazar (1967),
• Hunk of Skin by Pablo Picasso (1968),
• Cronopios and Famas by Julio Cortazar (1969)

Works published posthumously

• Early Selected Y Mas: Poems 1949-1966 (1972),
• Peire Vidal (1972),
• Halfway Down the Coast (1975),
• The Journals (1977),
• By Ear (1978),
• Proensa: An Anthology of Troubadour Poetry (1978),
• Lorca/Blackburn: Poems of Federico Garcia Lorca Chosen by Paul Blackburn (1979)
• Against the Silences (1980),
• The Selection of Heaven (1980),
• The Collected Poems of Paul Blackburn (1985),
• The Parallel Voyages (1987),
• The Selected Poems (1989)