The Naomi Poems: Corpse and Beans by Saint Geraud [1940-1966] (1968)

The first book by American poet Bill Knott (1940-2014).

Poetry Review:  The Fall 1966 edition of Epoch, Cornell University's literary magazine, announced, with black borders, "the death by suicide on March 2, 1966," of "St. Giraud [sic] (the pen-name of William Knott)."  The announcement mentioned that the suicide note stated that he had killed himself because "I am a virgin ... No girl has ever returned my love ... I am already dead of starvation."  The announcement also noted that St. Giraud's literary executor had "edited a posthumous volume of the ... poet's work for publication." Under the heading, "Some Posthumous Poems of St. Geraud," Epoch published a generous 25 poems. Some of those poems appear in The Naomi Poems, Book One: Corpse and Beans, published in 1968 as by "Saint Geraud (1940-1966)." St. Geraud was indeed the pseudonym of Bill Knott, and his next three books, Aurealism (1970), Auto-Necrophilia (1971), and Nights of Naomi (1972), were published as by "Bill Knott (1940-1966)." At least by 1976 he had stopped appending the dates "(1940-1966)" to his name. For, in fact, it was all a surreal hoax and there was no suicide and neither St. Geraud nor Bill Knott had died in 1966. As noted above, Bill Knott died a couple of years ago in 2014. This was his first book, published in 1968. The Naomi Poems is very much a product of its time, the author rages repeatedly against the early specter of the Vietnam War, but it is also timeless in its love poems and moments of wisdom, tenderness, and genuine sentiment:

   Your eyelashes are a narcotic.

Many of the poems are quite short, and I believe these are the most successful pieces:

   "Goodbye"
   If you are still alive when you read this,
   close your eyes. I am
   under their lids, growing black.

There are also longer poems, which tend to embrace a more surreal, angry, political, and contemporary feel. There are poems of "sleep, death, desire," but also vulgar and iconoclastic poems. He will condemn other poets as defending the war, and will write the least "poetic" poems possible:

   To read the future, gaze into your crystal asshole.

No rules or manners prevent him from saying his piece in The Naomi Poems. Even the poems that may not work well, still work because of their reach, because they tried and if they failed on some level they failed gloriously. And even the poems that seem opaque (my personal adversary), I trust in Knott that they are not simply words thrown together, but do contain a deeper meaning capable of discovery. He works that hard at his poems. There are three themes that arise and explode throughout: there is the political, the world created by the war in Vietnam; there is death, whether from Knott's childhood as an orphan or the war, or both, death is a constant refrain; and there is Naomi, his muse, his love, both real and fantasy at the same time. This is a passionate and striking book, incredible that it could've been written in 1966, and also inevitable that it was written in 1966. In later years, Bill Knott made all his work available for free on the internet, where it may all still be found. Note, the subtitle is an homage to the book of poetry Corps et Biens (1930) ["body and property" or "body and goods"] by French surrealist poet Robert Desnos (1900-45) who died in the Terezín concentration camp, after having been previously interned at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.  [5★]