Huge Dreams

<b>Huge Dreams</b> republishes two books out of print for thirty years which together are a cornerstone of the Beat movement: <b>The New Book/A Book of Torture and Star</b>. Both were influential in expanding poetry into a larger world: the West Coast Beat phenomena which focused on nature the environment antiwar activities individual anarchism Zen Buddhism jazz and a kind of romantic mystical thought. With these books Michael McClure brought an animal energy and a knowledge of art and physical human nature that was new to the scene.<p><b>The New Book/A Book of Torture</b> was written spontaneously while McClure was in a dark night of the soul brought on by psychedelics. A single long poem of experience and exploration it offers the means of liberation from the darkness it examines. Star is a wide-ranging book of chalice seeking spiritual discovery and political protest grounded in the emotions and sensations of eros and play.</p>