The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan

Starred review from October 24, 2005
More than 20 years in preparation, this is a major volume of 20th-century American poetry, bringing together everything that the Providence, R.I.–born Berrigan (1934–1983) would or could have published. Notley (Disobedience
, etc.), Berrigan's second wife, and their two sons (both poets) have meticulously re-edited Berrigan's books—he took the book as a real unit of composition—incorporating late drafts and fixes, and carefully re-formatting his very intentionally spaced open field verse. Just as importantly, they have sifted out the chaff from the super-productive Berrigan's oeuvre. Most poetry readers know The Sonnets
(1964), Berrigan's brilliant adaptation of Burroughsian cut-ups; they are as fresh, funny and targeted today as were 40 years ago. Fewer, though, know the 11 other books (and many more chapbooks) he published, each one deepening the addresses to friends, lovers, strangers and places (especially New York) around which he structured some very complex, very beautiful, often very delirious and very funny quarrels with people and language, with time and with space. Berrigan was a notoriously charismatic reader, teacher and participant in the community that developed around the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church; his persona has been cited as often as his poems. This book closes the gap once and for all.