As I've mentioned before, Robert Kelly is one of the most important poets to have put Corbin's work to use. This new collection of essays is very much worth your attention. Though there is no explicit mention of Corbin in these 800 pages, there are three occurrences of ta'wil. On p 284 is the justly famous comment that "A poem is the ta'wil of the first word written down." Perhaps more striking to me is the commentary on Charles Olson and the Angel, which begins on 171 - Olson was, Kelly says, particularly in the late, post-Maximus work, a man in search of his Angel. [I have written about the Olson/Corbin connection many times, and Maud's excellent Charles Olson At the Harbor - see here for instance.] There is so much of interest in this immense volume that it seems to me indispensable.
A companion book, forthcoming [this Fall?] from Contra Mundum, A City Full of Voices, will include the full text of the seminal 1974 collaboration Ta'wil, Or How to Read which I have pointed to several times here. And I will whet the appetite of all with an interest by mentioning that this volume will also contain an essay by George Quasha, "Uncertainties," which discusses Kelly's poetics and the entire complex of issues involved with the poetics of ta'wil, the visionary recital, initiation, creative imagination and alchemy. It is, it seems to me, quite wonderful and utterly essential reading for anyone interested in these matters.
Thanks to Pierre Joris for co-editing these books and for drawing our attention to them.
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