Companion Spider

February 1, 2002
Clayton Eshleman, poet, founder of literary magazines Sulfur and Caterpillar, and translator of Aim C saire, Antonin Artaud and Cesar Vallejo, has authored a collection of essays on the reading and writing of poetry, Companion Spider. In it, Eshleman parses works by Lorca, Artaud and C saire. He argues for a system of apprenticeship for young poets, and he excoriates The Norton Anthology of Poetry for its neglect of Objectivist and Language poets. With a foreword by Adrienne Rich.

January 1, 2002
A poet, translator, and founder of the groundbreaking literary magazines Sulfur and Caterpillar, Eshleman says that writers don't need workshops but gravitate toward them anyway, because they are "so gregarious, such leaky vessels." He certainly is: To open this book is to step into a world of writers, drugs, and poetry, of motorcycling through Kyoto to see Gary Snyder or being sent by Allen Ginsberg to call on Herbert Huncke in the act of cooking a poem, literally. One gets the impression that Eshleman picks his friends largely on their ability to stand up to him in an argument. While his combative style can be daunting, there is nothing clubby or hermetic about his pronouncements; he always points the reader out, not in, as with his long lists of recommended books. The spider of the title shows up in several instances, most tellingly in a French cave painting, where it figures as a companion in a search for "a self strong enough to love, strong enough to not judge, and strong enough to disintegrate." Anyone who delves into these opinionated essays will step back into the sunlight both irritated and enlightened. Recommended for academic libraries. David Kirby, Florida State Univ., Tallahassee

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