The Happy Birthday of Death

New York: New Directions, 1960. First edition (stated). Black octavo; 91, [3] pages, [1] folded leaf of b&w plates; 21 cm. Very mild wear to spine foot and head, light fading to spine, faint soiling to covers, extremely gentle rubbing to corners, else Very Good(+). Paperback.

Poetry. Contents: Notes after blacking out -- How happy I used to be -- Seaspin -- Hair -- 'Let us inspect the lyre' -- Under peyote -- Transformation & Escape -- Discord -- I held a Shelley manuscript -- 1953 -- On Pont Neuf -- Spontaneous poem after having seen the Metropolitan Museum -- Waterchew! -- Poets hitchhiking on the highway -- Marriage -- Bomb -- Food -- She doesn't know he think's he's God -- The frightening difference -- Death -- Medieval anatomy -- Early mornings writings -- Dream of a baseball star -- No doubt what he saw -- Written while watching the Yankees play Detroit -- A little lost -- Giant turtle -- A dreamed realization -- For K.R. who killed himself in Charles Street jail -- Paranoia in Crete -- Clown -- Away one year -- On Palatine -- A moment's wish -- Park -- The Sacre-Coeur Cafe -- Gargoyles -- For Bunny Lang -- Written in nosalgia for Paris -- Mortal infliction -- From another room -- Looking at the map of the world -- Heave the hive with new bees -- Owl -- All life is a rotary club -- Satyr;s chant -- Spring's melodious hearld -- Power -- Army -- Police -- 1959.