SOME THOUGHTS ON THE POETRY OF KENNETH PATCHEN

The poetry of Kenneth Patchen contains perhaps the best balance I have ever read between day to day concerns, the little details of childhood, relationships, setting and the political concerns of an exterior world such as injustice and poverty….Take for example “The Orange Bears” wherein descriptions of childhood toy bears are buried under what it means to grow up as a poor child in West Virginia coal country in among strike breaking and the soot and grime and pollution of mining town life.

Even better is “Crossing on Staten Island Ferry” wherein a moment of peace between two lovers on a ferry (which is perhaps the most romantic of settings with the lights of the city as a backdrop) is entwined with a fervent plea for no more unnecessary deaths (a veiled reference to war).

Patchen also has a gift for finding the truth in every scene….His work is every word correct….Not too raw in a way that makes one wince and neither is it “poetic” in a flowery too wordy way.

All in all, amazingly satisfying poet to read especially because of the way his sentences follow one another.

Here are a number of Patchen’s poems….

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/kenneth_patchen/poems

and here’s Henry Miller’s well-known essay on Patchen that introduced me to him….

http://www.tc.umn.edu/~hreh0001/pal.html