We’re familiar by now with the designation of neglected writers as “poets’ poets”— essentially, an excuse for their continuing neglect. And we are, or should be, even more familiar with the neglect heaped on African American innovative writers, especially those who refuse to be easily pigeonholed into secure ideological or formal categories. Thomas Elias Weatherly (1942–2014) fits both categories.
Note: What follows is the complete text of Tom Weatherly’s first book, Maumau American Cantos, originally published by Corinth Books in 1970. — David Grundy
PennSound has located a rare sound recording of Tom Weathelry, reading in Grand Valley Michigan in July of 1971. (21;07): MP3 Weatherly reads the complete serial poem "MAUMAU AMERICAN CANTOS" for the first ten minutes of the reading (text here); after that he reads various poems, including “Lady Fox” from Thumprint but nothing else from that book or MAUMAU.
Tom Weatherly -- full texs of these powerful, brilliant, often volatile (and distressingly unacknowledged) books at Eclipse: MAUMAU AMERICAN CANTOS (Corinth Books, 1970, via Eclipse) Thumbprint (Telgraph Books, 1971, via Eclpise)
Tom Weatherly (Nov. 3, 1942 - July 15 , 2014) on PennSound
PennSound has located a rare sound recording of Tom Weathelry, reading in Grand Valley Michigan in July of 1971.
(21;07): MP3
Weatherly reads the complete serial poem "MAUMAU AMERICAN CANTOS" for the first ten minutes of the reading (text here); after that he reads various poems, including “Lady Fox” from Thumprint but nothing else from that book or MAUMAU.
Tom Weatherly -- full texs of these powerful, brilliant, often volatile (and distressingly unacknowledged) books at Eclipse:
MAUMAU AMERICAN CANTOS (Corinth Books, 1970, via Eclipse)
Thumbprint (Telgraph Books, 1971, via Eclpise)