Kevin Canfield April 12, 2021
“Mule Kick Blues” by Michael McClure
We should never assume that a poet’s words are autobiographical, but it seems clear that Michael McClure’s irreverent verse about mortality came from a deeply personal place.
“TO GROW OLD IS A JOY PRECEDING THE BIG ONE,” McClure, the famed Bay Area writer who was 87 when he died in May, writes in this evocative collection of “last poems.” “Death is a dark chocolate cake,/ sweet, and filled with deep blue tortures.”
Intelligent, affable and flecked with unconventional typography as in previous books, McClure capitalizes numerous words and arranges others to run vertically down the page “Mule Kick Blues” is an estimable coda to a storied career.