While famous for his celebrated novel, Under the Volcano, Malcolm
Lowry always considered himself a poet. First published in 1962 and long
out of print, Selected Poems of Malcolm Lowry is the only
comprehensive selection of his poetry to be published, and it remains
the perfect introduction to his extensive poetic canon. Edited by
Lowry's good friend, renowned Canadian poet Earle Birney, with the
assistance of his widow, Margerie Lowry, the selection includes
extraordinary poems written during Lowry's stay in Mexico, many of which
are closely related to his novel. This new edition includes a
"Publisher's Note" from Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
"These poems would be worth keeping in print, if for no other reason,
for their illuminations of Under the Volcano: 'See mind's petal / torn
from a good tree, but where shall it settle / But in the last darkness
and at the end?' Sometimes, as the images of "For Under the Volcano,"
they become 'palm-of-the-hand' versions of that masterpiece. Lowry is a
poet of struggle--with life, and with the creative process. Here are his
struggle's fruits: guilt, alcoholism, hopeless, self-deriding quest for
salvation, which seems to be love, and, above all, self-destruction--but
always accomplished with self-knowledge, enriched (in order to further
torment itself) with compassion for all the beings that the poet, and us
with him, are failing. His words are always sad and often
beautiful."--William T. Vollmann
