Charles Olson
Charles Olson
Charles Olsonwas a second generation American poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance. Consequently, many postmodern groups, such as the poets of the language school, include Olson as a primary and precedent figure. He described himself not so much as a poet or writer but as "an archeologist...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth27 December 1910
CountryUnited States of America
Forgive me if I sleep until I wake up.
bees dig the plum blossoms
You can do anything, literally, right? That's one of the exciting possibilities of the present.
This morning of the small snow I count the blessings, the leak in the faucet which makes of the sink time, the drop of the water on water.
An American is a complex of occasions, themselves a geometry of spatial nature.
ONE PERCEPTION MUST IMMEDIATELY AND DIRECTLY LEAD TO A FURTHER PERCEPTION
I defer to all these other American poets who, for some reason, I both envy and admire.
You don't help people in your poems. I've been trying to help people all my life - that's my trouble
I don't live for poetry. I live far more than anybody else does.
Were all moving, moving, moving. Isnt it nice?
I'm sorry, but I was born with a towel on my head.
I was playing catch with the European audience.
I take space to be the central fact to man born in America. I spell it large because it comes large here. Large and without mercy.
Fact is based upon vulgar matter.