A Wicker Basket

“For Love” by Robert Creeley (1962)

Arguably Creeley’s most famous poem, “For Love” exemplifies a different side of Creeley’s work compared to the singsong, carefree narrative of “A Wicker Basket.” The poem, written and dedicated to Creeley’s wife Bobbie Hawkins, is a powerful, minimalist lyric on the inexpressibility of love. Like “A Wicker Basket,” the poem consists of short line stanzas and conversational language. Unlike his other poem, however, “For Love” demonstrates Creeley’s innovate use of enjambment, intellectual blending of Postmodern thought with lyric transparency, and powerful use of pathos.

“Poetry, a Natural Thing” by Robert Duncan (1960)

Robert Duncan was a close friend of Creeley’s and fellow Black Mountain School poet. Creeley and Duncan corresponded, wrote poems for one another, and compared themselves in essays and interviews. Despite their similarities, this poem showcases the radically different poetic strategies Duncan employed compared to his more minimal and conversational peer. Like “A Wicker Basket,” this poem also discusses “making it,” but its use of form, surprising imagery, and advanced diction sets it widely apart.

“Maximus, to himself” by Charles Olson (1950)

The third—and arguably, most central—figure of the Black Mountain School’s three central poets (along with Creeley and Duncan), Charles Olson’s influence on Robert Creeley cannot be overestimated. This poem is a part of Olson’s larger masterwork The Maximus Poems, which realized what he called projective poetics. Robert Creeley was so close to Olson (as both a friend and a student) that he sometimes jokingly referred to himself as Minimus in relation to Olson’s Maximus. This excerpt from Olson’s American epic demonstrates his unique and sometimes opaque poetic voice. Despite their friendship and shared commitment to projective poetics, Olson’s nearly hermetic verse reads very differently than Creeley’s straightforward, conversational language.