Poetry
His poetry made use of jazz syncopation and meter. The critic Raymond Foye wrote about him, "Adapting the harmonic complexities and spontaneous invention of bebop to poetic euphony and meter, he became the quintessential jazz poet."
Poet Jack Micheline said about Kaufman, "I found his work to be essentially improvisational, and was at its best when accompanied by a jazz musician. His technique resembled that of the surreal school of poets, ranging from a powerful, visionary lyricism of satirical, near dadaistic leanings, to the more prophetic tone that can be found in his political poems."
Kaufman said of his own work, "My head is a bony guitar, strung with tongues, plucked by fingers & nails."
After learning of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Kaufman took a Buddhist vow of silence that lasted until the end of the Vietnam War in 1973. He broke his silence by reciting his poem "All Those Ships that Never Sailed," the first lines of which are
- All those ships that never sailed
- The ones with their seacocks open
- That were scuttled in their stalls...
- Today I bring them back
- Huge and intransitory
- And let them sail
- Forever
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Famous quotes containing the word poetry:
“Finally, in the last year of her age,
Having attained a present blessedness,
She said poetry and apotheosis are one.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)