Douglas Blazek
B. 1941
One of the instigators of the Mimeo Revolution, poet and editor Douglas Blazek is considered a force in the American poetry “underground” of the 1960s. Early in his career, Blazek published hundreds of poems in dozens of books, chapbooks, and journals, including New Directions, TriQuarterly, and many more little magazines that, in Blazek’s words, “contributed to the ferment of the Sixties.” Blazek also founded and edited the magazine Ole and the small press Open Skull. As an editor, Blazek published work by Charles Bukowski, Robert Crumb, d.a. levy, and other non-establishment writers.
In the 1980s, Blazek stopped publishing and began a period of intense rewriting. Of this process, Blazek has said: “Over the years, new poems were spliced into the manuscripts I was rewriting… No old poem is old. Each is as fresh as if never breathed before, yet preserves the bones its body first owned in its natality.” Aperture Mirror (2012) and The Blindfold Alphabet (2014) are the first books of Blazek’s rewritings.
In the 1980s, Blazek stopped publishing and began a period of intense rewriting. Of this process, Blazek has said: “Over the years, new poems were spliced into the manuscripts I was rewriting… No old poem is old. Each is as fresh as if never breathed before, yet preserves the bones its body first owned in its natality.” Aperture Mirror (2012) and The Blindfold Alphabet (2014) are the first books of Blazek’s rewritings.