Robert Kelly

B. 1935
Black and white headshot of poet Robert Kelly.
Photo by Charlotte Mandell

Robert Kelly grew up in Brooklyn and was drawn to poetry upon encountering Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” in an anthology. Educated at the City College of the City University of New York and Columbia University, Kelly is known as a founder of the Deep Image movement, which he described in a 2006 interview as “the journey to the depths with language as our only tool and music our only weapon.”

Kelly’s more than 50 collections of poetry include Armed Descent (1961); Kill the Messenger Who Brings Bad News (1980), chosen as the Los Angeles Times Book of the Year; Red Actions: Selected Poems 1960–1993 (1995); and May Day (2007). Bookforum critic Joseph Donahue, praising Lapis (2005), noted that Kelly “has given magic back its dignity, finding it in human warmth.” Kelly’s free-verse poetry, both spare in language and wide-ranging in its attention, is often engaged with the intimacy of audience: the connection forged between individuals looking outward together.

Kelly co-founded, with George Economou, both Trobar and the Chelsea Review (now Chelsea), and has edited Matter. Kelly has also served as a contributing editor for several other journals. His poetry has been featured several times in Best American Poetry and has been included in The Voice That Is Great Within Us (1971) and Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (1994). He has co-edited the anthology A Controversy of Poets (1965), written numerous works of fiction, and published an essay collection, In Time (1972). His work has been translated into several languages.

Kelly’s honors include an Award for Distinction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He has taught at Bard College, where he was a founding member of the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts.

Bibliography

POETRY

  • Armed Descent, Hawk's Well Press, 1961.
  • Her Body against Time (English and Spanish editions), Ediciones El Corno Emplumado, 1963.
  • Tabula, Dialogue Press, 1964.
  • Enstasy, Matter, 1964.
  • Matter/Fact/Sheet/ 1, Matter, 1964.
  • Matter/Fact/Sheet/ 2, Matter, 1964.
  • Round Dances, illustrated by Josie Rosenfeld, Trobar, 1964.
  • (With Jerome Rothenberg) Lunes/Sightings, Hawk's Well Press, 1964.
  • Lectiones, Duende, 1965.
  • Song XXIV, Pym-Randall Press, 1966.
  • Weeks, Ediciones El Corno Emplumado, 1966.
  • Words in Service, Robert Lamberton, 1966.
  • Devotions, Salitter, 1967.
  • Twenty Poems, Matter, 1967.
  • Axon Dendron Tree (long poem), Matter, 1967.
  • Crooked Bridge Love Society, Salitter, 1967.
  • A Joining: A Sequence for H.D., Black Sparrow Press, 1967.
  • Alpha, J. Fisher, 1967.
  • From the Common Shore, Book V, Minkoff, 1968.
  • Songs I-XXX, Pym-Randall Press, 1968.
  • Statement, Black Sparrow Press, 1968.
  • Sonnets, Black Sparrow Press, 1968.
  • Finding the Measure, Black Sparrow Press, 1968.
  • The Common Shore, Books I-V: A Long Poem about America, Black Sparrow Press, 1969.
  • We Are the Arbiters of Beast Desire, MBVL, 1969.
  • A California Journal, Big Venus, 1969.
  • Kali Yuga, Grossman, 1970.
  • Flesh, Dream, Book, Black Sparrow Press, 1971.
  • Ralegh, Black Sparrow Press, 1972.
  • The Pastorals, Black Sparrow Press, 1972.
  • Reading Her Notes, Salisbury Press, 1972.
  • The Tears of Edmund Burke, privately printed, 1973.
  • The Mill of Particulars, Black Sparrow Press, 1973.
  • Whaler Frigate Clippership, Tansy, 1973.
  • The Belt, University of Connecticut Library, 1974.
  • The Loom, Black Sparrow Press, 1975.
  • Sixteen Odes, Black Sparrow Press, 1976.
  • The Lady Of, Black Sparrow Press, 1977.
  • The Convections, Black Sparrow Press, 1977.
  • The Book of Persephone, Treacle Press, 1978.
  • Kill the Messenger Who Brings Bad News, Black Sparrow Press, 1979.
  • Sentence, Station Hill Press, 1980.
  • Spiritual Exercises, Black Sparrow Press, 1981.
  • The Alchemist to Mercury: An Alternate Opus, edited by Jed Rasula, North Atlantic, 1981.
  • Mulberry Women, illustrated by Matt Phillips, Hiersoux, 1982.
  • Under Words, Black Sparrow Press, 1983.
  • Thor's Thrush, Coincidence Press, 1984.
  • Not This Island Music, Black Sparrow Press, 1987.
  • The Flowers of Unceasing Coincidence, edited by George Quasha, Station Hill Press, 1988.
  • Oahu, St. Lazaire Press, 1988.
  • Ariadne, St. Lazaire Press, 1991.
  • Manifesto for the Next New York School, Leave Press, 1991.
  • A Strange Market, Black Sparrow Press, 1992.
  • Red Actions: Selected Poems, 1960-1993, Black Sparrow Press, 1995.
  • The Time of Voice: Poems, Black Sparrow Press, 1998.

PROSE

  • The Well wherein a Deer's Head Bleeds (play; produced in New York, 1964), Black Sparrow Press, 1968.
  • The Scorpions (novel), Doubleday, 1967.
  • Eros and Psyche (play; music by Elie Yarden), produced in New York, 1971.
  • In Time (essays and manifestos), Frontier Press, 1971.
  • Cities (fiction), Frontier Press, 1972.
  • Sulphur, privately printed, 1972.
  • A Line of Sight (fiction), Black Sparrow Press, 1974.
  • Wheres, Black Sparrow Press, 1978.
  • The Cruise of the Pnyx, Station Hill Press, 1979.
  • How Do I Make Up My Mind, Lord?: Story Devotions for Boys, (juvenile), illustrated by Tom Maakestad, Augsburg, 1982.
  • A Transparent Tree (short fiction), McPherson, 1985.
  • The Mail of Mann: The Story of the Isle of Man Post Office, Manx Associated Publications, 1988.
  • Doctor of Silence (short stories), McPherson, 1988.
  • Cat Scratch Fever, McPherson, 1990.
  • Queen of Terrors (fiction), 1994.

EDITOR

  • (With Paris Leary, and contributor) A Controversy of Poets: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, Doubleday, 1965.
  • Paul Blackburn, The Journals, Black Sparrow Press, 1975.

Contributor to a variety of literary magazines, including Chelsea Review, Trobar, Caterpillar, and Sulfur. A collection of Kelly's manuscripts are housed at the Lockwood Memorial Library, State University of New York at Buffalo.

Further Readings

BOOKS

  • Ossman, David, The Sullen Art, Corinth, 1963.

PERIODICALS

  • Antioch Review, winter, 1989.
  • Atlantic Monthly, February, 1961.
  • Kulchur, autumn, 1962.
  • Los Angeles Times Book Review, December 18, 1983, p. 2; January 13, 1991, p. 10.
  • New York Times, January 11, 1967.
  • New York Times Book Review, January 8, 1961; September 15, 1985, p. 18; January 19, 1992; May 31, 1992.
  • Poetry, June, 1966; September, 1966.
  • Saturday Review, February 4, 1961.
  • Village Voice Literary Supplement, October, 1985.
  • Washington Post Book World, June 23, 1991, p. 12.