Peter
Ganick is one of the three most important figures in my poetic career, which
spans many decades since the '70's. I never met Peter Ganick. If for nothing
nothing else, he should be remembered for editing one of the most important,
seminal and experimental poetry series of the last century, Potes & Poets.
When he accepted a long poem of mine, City of Angels, to be published in the
Potes & Poets New Chapbook Series, I felt really honored. But my gratitude
exploded when he agreed to publish my highly experimental epic length poem,
Madonna Septet (2000). This is a work of 864 pages, divided into 2 physical
volumes. Ganick was taken by this work, its staccato delivery automatic writing
and its multiple avenues of perspective from the religious to the profane. We
worked closely together editing this, and he chose the color schemes for the
covers, with their tantric illustration. We soon developed an intense email
relationship, covering numerous topics, but mostly about Indian philosophy and
to a lesser extent music (George Harrison was our favorite pop musician with
his album All things Must Pass). As a result we did a collaborative long poem
together, Cosmic Karmic Raga. We published this work under two pseudonyms (his
idea), namely Vyasa and Bahina Bai.
Over
the years of the new century, he invited me to submit work for online
publications, and for various other presses. Most notable was the invitation to
publish my new epic work: Comedy , Divine , The (2009). Ostensibly based on
Dante's poem, it is structurally the most demanding of my works, and Peter
again worked hard editing it and getting all the stanzas correct in their
formal appearance. This was published by his new press, Blue Lion Books, in
collaboration with a partner in Finland. Like Madonna Septet, the Dante-esque
poem was one I thought I would never get published. I credit Ganick for his
generosity of spirit and breadth of vision in getting these works into print. I
sensed in our email correspondence as well in his own works which he shared
with me, and for which I wrote an occasional blurb, that above all Ganick's
intuition and genius was based in music. And indeed I once compared one of his
works to the music of Archie Shepp. As I said, I never met Peter Ganick, but in
a very spiritual way, we had met over and over again in our exchange of words
and ideas. Without his guiding genius, a lot of the experimental poetry of the
last century might never have seen the light. He was in my opinion a towering
and enigmatic figure. He once wrote to me: Life is the same as death.
Ivan
Arguelles
Berkeley
CA
Iván Argüelles
is a Mexican-American innovative poet, author of many books of poetry, among
them "That" Goddess; Madonna Septet; Comedy , Divine
, The; FIAT LUX; Orphic Cantos; Fragments from a Gone
World; and, The Rudiments of Poetry. Raised variously in Mexico City
DF, Los Angeles, and Rochester MN, he received a degree (BA) in Classics from
the University of Chicago; and a degree in Library Science (MLS) from
Vanderbilt University. A professional librarian he worked at the New York
Public Library and at the Library of the University of California Berkeley. He
is co-founder and editor of the now defunct Pantograph Press. Retired now, he
resides in Berkeley CA.
