Collected Poems of Bob Kaufman gathers the surviving work of one of the most original voices in twentieth-century American poetry. Long associated with the Beat Generation and the emergence of the Afro-Surreal, Kaufman fused automatic writing with the improvisational energy of jazz to create poems of rare intensity and vision.

This landmark volume from City Lights Books brings together all of Kaufman’s known surviving poems, including a substantial trove of previously uncollected work. It offers a fuller picture of a poet who often composed spontaneously, seldom wrote his poems down, and left much of his work to be preserved by others.

Kaufman’s poetry moves between urban street scenes, prophetic visions, and kaleidoscopic surreal images, reflecting both joy and despair. His distinctive voice, at once vulnerable and fiercely imaginative, helped shape the sound and texture of postwar American poetry and continues to influence writers and performers today.

Ideal for readers of Beat literature, jazz-inspired writing, and modern and contemporary poetry, this collection provides an essential introduction to Kaufman’s art as well as a deeper resource for longtime admirers.

• Definitive single-volume collection of Kaufman’s surviving poems
• Includes extensive previously uncollected material
• Essential reading in Beat, Afro-surreal, and American avant-garde poetry

We ship at a flat rate of $9.99 per order. Orders $45 and up ship free of charge.