Joanne Kyger

by Daryl Higdon and Chandler Jobson

Joanne Kyger was born in 1934 as a native Californian. There she went to high school and eventually to the University of California Santa Barbara. At UCSB, Kyger was able to pursue her two main interests of poetry and philosophy. In 1957 she left Santa Barbara and moved to San Francisco. In this new city she quickly became immersed in the active poetry scene, where she met Gary Snyder and Philip Whalen amongst many others. She moved into the East-West House and started studying with Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, newly arrived from Japan, at the Soto Zen Mission. In 1960 Kyger left for Japan to be with Gary Snyder, whom she then married. Also while in Asia, Kyger traveled to India with Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, and Peter Orlofsky. In these countries she wrote poetry, studied flower arranging, and practiced at Daitoku-ji with Ruth Fuller Sasaki. In 1964 she returned to the United States and the following year had her first book The Tapestry and the Web was published. In San Francisco she was also gave readings and participated in the Berkley Poetry Conference. In total Kyger has published 16 books of poetry and prose. In 1968 she settled in Bolinas, California where she has edited the local newspaper and occasionally teaches at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in Boulder, Colorado. She is still living to this day and sits at the Ocean Wind Zendo in Bolinas and travels to Mexico as much possible.

In one of Joanne Kyger’s poems called “Many Years Ago”, Joanne discussed her journey to a poetry reading and about an important lesson that she learned because of it. Joanne’s poetry reading was to take place in San Francisco, California, and was to be performed to one of the main Buddhism schools, the Karmapa. Joanne was a strong supporter of Buddhism, and was asked to read by one of the top meditation masters of Buddhism, Chogyam Trungpa. and she clearly expresses that she was very nervous while going there for the entire trip. ‘I am very nervous I wonder if the car will make it I think I may die at any moment’ (6-8, Many Years Ago) She gets there safely though, and is greeted by a bottle of pills at a bar backstage that say “LONG LIFE PILLS” on them. These were given to her from the Karmapa, and she was ‘so nervous’ that she swallowed ‘them down right away’. (16-17 Many Years Ago) Joanne feels better as soon as she takes the pills, and then asks another fellow American poet, Michael McClure, if he was going to take his pills soon. “Aren’t you going to take yours?” He says, “I’m going to save mine.” (18-19 Many Years Ago)
Even though it has been many years since Joanna received these pills, she still thinks about them, and regrets taking them all at once.
‘ Years later (still alive) I think of those pills—They were little seeds If I’d really done a wise things I would have planted those seeds so there would be a whole bunch of seeds and everyone could have some whenever they wanted them’ (20-26 Many Years Ago)

In this poem, the pills can be symbolized for many things. To some people it could be food, to others it could be money, but in any case, Joanne is trying to say that she would have felt better about herself if she had ‘shared the wealth.’ Joanne could have seen these pills as a wise lesson that could be learned from the Karmapa. Since they were called “LONG LIFE” pills, the Karmapa could have meant that she will live a longer life if she slowly savors the pills. They could have been trying to teach her that people live longer lives when they appreciate things that are given to them and to not immediately waste them. Joanne does not realize this at first, and takes all of the pills at once to get an instant feeling of satisfaction. Many years after that, though, she still regrets making that decision, and looks into the empty bottle where the “LONG LIFE” pills once were. She was also influenced by Michael. He said that he was going to save his and that symbolizes that he is hoarding things that he has been given, and she does not like that he did that. She realizes that if she had ‘planted them,’ there would be more of these “LONG LIFE” pills to share with other people, so they would have learned this valuable lesson from the Karmapa as well.

While traveling in Asia Joanne Kyger’s friend sported a rambunctious hat, which inspired her well-known poem Philip Whalen’s Hat. Kyger arose from her sleep with a vivid image imprinted in her memory of Philip Whalen and his hat. In the first few lines of the poem Kyger describes the hat in detail, making it sound as obnoxious as possible. The brass description leads into the next stanza which Kyger uses phrase location and emphasis on specific words in order to better express her point.
The first phrase, “It sits on top...” is literally sitting on top of the stanza and is very direct in why Kyger chose to put that phrase there. In the next phrases Kyger uses italics in order to draw attention to the words, “thing” and “body”. She does this in order to stress the fact that Philip Whalen’s outrageous hat was able to upstage anything and everything in its presence. Later in the poem Kyger also uses the same visual tool later in the last lines of the poem.
In the following stanza Kyger mentions that, “He bought it at Walgreen’s himself”. After this she describes his simplistic dress, which is completely opposite of his hat. In his hand he is holding Buddhist Rosary beads. He is holding the beads, showing his belief in Buddhism, which is characteristic for being simplistic. The rest of his dress and his possession of the beads are directly contradictory to his flamboyant hat he insists on wearing. Kyger is noticing how he is holding the beads but is not being simplistic at all. In fact he is being overly extravagant. She is reading into his possession of the beads much more than he is.
In the last stanzas she is wondering what mantra he is doing in an attempt to explain his odd handling of the beads. Kyger thinks that there must be an explanation and deeper meaning for why Philip Whalen is doing what he does. Kyger brings back the use if italics in Whalen’s explanation for his actions, “in Zen, you don’t have to bother with any of that. You can just play with the beads”. Philip Whalen explains that not everything has to be for a deeper meaning. Even something as serious as religion can be used just for fun sometimes. Kyger uses the italics to emphasize this point. Philip Whalen enjoys just playing sometime, which he outwardly demonstrates in his choice of headwear. Obviously Kyger is the type of person who thinks that things need to be done with conviction and a purpose, but Whalen is able to point out to her that not all things not to be so serious. In life sometimes you can just have fun and play.

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joanne_Kyger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chogyam_Trungpa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmapa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_McClure
www.jacketmagazine.com/ 11/px/kyger-kyoto-large.jpg
www.bigbridge.org/ eurosf/jkyger.jpg

Book Sources

Kyger, Joanne. As Ever. Edited by Michael Rothenberg. New York: Penguin Books, 2002.

Big Sky Mind: Buddhism and the Beat Generation. Edited by Carole Tonkinson. New York: Riverhead Books, 1995.