The Cave is a collaboration of prose, poetry, dialogue, and song
alternately written by Clark Coolidge and Bernadette Mayer in their
early thirties. Assembled between 1972 and 1978, The Cave explores the
philosophy of Wittgenstein, the nature of language, and the connections
between the present and past. It constantly challenges the reader to
question reality, time, and the poets themselves. The work ranges from
complex and imagistic rambles through imaginary landscapes to terse,
clear accounts of exploring Eldon's Cave in western Massachusetts, the
setting of several of Coolidge's poems. Like a mystery novel, The Cave
draws the reader in with hints that all the strands weave together into
a coherent picture.
Clark Coolidge and Bernadette Mayer have been writing for over fifty
years, and they have both had an unquantifiable impact on the direction
of experimental poetry. In the words of Marcella Durand, who provides an
introduction to The Cave, "Coolidge and Mayer evidently shared a
common mission in their writings to encompass consciousness, language,
and the intricacy of physical/scientific/geologic structures, and to
cross whatever fake borders had been set up between genres, materials,
or even words themselves."
Clark Coolidge lives in Petaluma, California. His most recent books
include Far Out West, published by Adventures in Poetry, and Bomb, a
collaboration with Keith Waldrop, published by Granary Books.
Bernadette Mayer has experimented with numerous forms of media,
including film, collage, stories, and poems. Her most recent books
include Scarlet Tanager and A Bernadette Mayer Reader, both
published by New Directions.
