Scope and Contents

Cover was designed by Les Levine. The poems deal with the Vietnam war, homoeroticism, heteroeroticism, and Buddhist religion. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

Scope and Contents Marcus Boon, who edited this book writes, Giorno's late-1960s poems see him expanding the use of found materials, including pornographic and countercultural texts, as well as the use of repetition. Indeed, poems like "Capsule," "Give It to Me, Baby," and "Johnny Guitar" are among the most rock 'n' roll poems ever written, every bit as psychedelic and confrontational as The Stooges or Jefferson Airplane, and probably just as much the product of a wide-ranging armory of pharmaceuticals, which, as Giorno has repeatedly insisted, have the potential to open and expand the mind and bring bliss. Balling Buddha, a multicolor confection printed on pages in the six colors of the rainbow, rather than traditional black on white, introduced Giorno's signature split lines running down the center of each page-as a way of both reproducing the multitracking used in his sound poems and perturbing the linear flow of text on the page. Giorno observes that the split line "breaks the lineal flow....

Scope and Contents

The Sackner Archive also holds a copy of the book and tape cassette that constituted the trade edition of this work. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.