Robert Peters once wrote of Roxie Powell’s first book, Dreams of Straw, that “anyone anxious for an original experience in poetry will love Dreams of Straw.”
That remains one of the best descriptions of Roxie’s work I’ve ever encountered.
The poems were unlike anything else being written at the time: non-workshop, non-academic, non-fashionable, and wholly original. The book developed a quiet reputation among poets and readers who recognized something special in its pages. It’s rumored that Allen Ginsberg carried a copy with him for years. What is known for certain is that Ginsberg admired the book enough to finance a second printing.
And yet, despite the praise, Roxie Powell remained one of American poetry’s best-kept secrets.
In the thirty-five years following the publication of Dreams of Straw by Dave Haselwood’s legendary Auerhahn Press, Powell published only two additional books. The synaesthesia press was proud to publish his fourth collection, Wild Whispers.
Anselm Hollo, who contributed the book’s foreword, described the poems as ranging “from the meditative mystery of the title poem to painterly evocations of place,” noting their ability to revisit childhood, landscape, love, and memory without ever becoming predictable. Charles Plymell, who provided the afterword, posed a question that had already been answered decades earlier: what great poet and feared critic publicly praised Roxie Powell’s work?
The answer, of course, was Allen Ginsberg.
Wild Whispers was published in an edition of 125 copies. Ninety-nine copies were numbered and signed by the poet. Twenty-six lettered copies were additionally signed by Anselm Hollo and Charles Plymell and included three separate letterpress broadsides laid into the volume. The book was hand-sewn into wrappers, with both covers and dust jacket printed letterpress.
Roxie Powell remains one of the finest poets most readers have never heard of. I’ll go even further: I think Dreams of Straw is one of the most charming, whimsical, and quietly remarkable little poetry books published during the 1960s. That’s a crowded field, and yes, I’m taking Richard Brautigan into consideration.
That’s a high bar, but Dreams of Straw clears it.
