Celebrate Philip Lamantia Day Today!

That special day of the year always seems to creep up on us... Yes, today is Philip Lamantia's birthday! (he would have been 88 years old). Over at the glade of theoric ornithic hermetica Steve Fama is celebrating the day by taking a look at Lamantia's poem “Death Jets," which Fama reminds us was "first published in Zyzzyva magazine in Winter 1985, then included in Meadowlark West (City Lights, 1986). It’s also included in The Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia (University of California Press, 2013)." The poem was written in response to the Blue Angels' air exhibition that is flown over San Francisco every October. Fama notes that large, appreciative crowds gather each year to watch and listen to the jets' aerial acrobatics. Lamantia, however, saw things differently: "Lamantia, on the other hand, considered the Blue Angels beyond terrible. His anti-militarist (and related pro-human) perspectives on this were one of the many, many things I loved about him." More:

“Death Jets” features a very-unusual-for-Lamantia structure, in which a prose-ish explanatory interlude, labeled a “commentary,” appears after the poem’s first four lines. That commentary features – and this will be the focus of this celebration today – a most surprising and delicious allusion, especially to us who love verse, to the 15th century Valencian poet named – well, more on that in a moment! First, take a look if you please at the poem’s first four lines:

Death Jets

three of them have terrorized my apollo finger
most hideous
of human existence
for the umpteenth time, sans life

I dig dig dig this opening salvo, starting with the phrase “apollo finger.” It’s a term from palmistry that refers to the third or ring finger, said to indicate creativity, artistic flair and love of beauty. By this metaphor, Lamantia neatly shows that it’s no less than the poetic force itself that the jets attack. And the verb “terrorized” is exactly right, or so it seems to me as I recall the sudden core-rattling Shock-Shock (yes, I feel a double-startle) of the Blue Angels blasting through low in the sky, shaking windows, spines, and minds. Lamantia’s disgust at the jets couldn’t be clearer – “most hideous / of human existence” – nor could his core objection to it all – “sans life” – and exasperation at how long it goes on – “for the umpteenth time” (a neat use there of the informal adjective signifying “an indefinitely large number in succession”).

These first four lines show and tell a lot. But Lamantia obviously wanted something even sharper and clearer, and why not? As William Blake wrote, “You never know what is enough unless you know what is more than enough.” And so to emphasize, explicate, and expand his perspectives, Lamantia places the following prose-y section, sub-titled “commentary,” after the poem’s opening stanza:

These lines respond to the omnipresent threat of species suicide, to an ‘eternal' moment of decision, since it is certain that the sentence of death is passed unless there arise a conscious revolt against the forces of death — a mutational movement in opposition to all the moribund political powers who continue to sanction ‘Blue Angels,' whereas, thrills vaster than the poetry of Ausias March await us if, by the next century, Betelgeuse
always Betelgeuse
pervades the skyscapes a sudden sensuous freedom to sweetly ask for chi'i in all moments

I dig dig dig this section too. I love the radical, visionary zeal, buttressed by a deep animus to “the forces of death.” I love too the resolute certainty in a future “sudden sensuous freedom to sweetly ask for chi’i in all moments” if – ah, yes, if – “a conscious revolt” and/or “a mutational movement” takes place. Also remarkable is the powerful almost cinematic nature of Lamantia’s imagined world: the red supergiant Betelgeuse (notice how that star is emphasized via the linebreak and repetition) omnipresent across “skyscapes” as us humans seek the essential life force and energy flow. Hey good people, let’s make it happen!

Yes, make it happen! Head to the glade of theoric ornithic hermetica to read on and to celebrate Philip Lamantia day.