Philip Lamantia is to traditional poetry as Pegasus is to the plow-horse. The poems in "Bed of Sphinxes" spring from the meeting of the conscious and pre-conscious mind, and then take wing, carrying the reader on a marvelous ride of imagination and adventure. "Bed of Sphinxes" presents poems from Lamantia's more than fifty years of work. The collection begins with poems written in the early 1940s, when as a young teenager Lamantia traveled from his native Frisco to New York and met and was published by Andre Breton and the other exiled surrealists. Next are poems written in the '50s and '60s, when Lamantia explored religious mysticism, the derangement of the senses, and various hermetic disciplines. These are followed by poems from the '70s and '80s, when Lamantia returned to a pure surrealist approach, and added an ecological imperative that grounds the poems in the western states and Northern California in particular. Finally, the book includes poems from recent years, which show that Lamantia retains the force of vision and word-smithing skills so common to his work. Lamantia's poetry may seem difficult to those who have only experienced poems of prosaic narration, rational thought, and conventional imagery. His poems do not so much describe events, persons, or feelings, as they are products of such experiences. Lamantia does not, for example, tell us about an ecstatic experience, but rather gives a poem that was born from it. Combine this approach with his wide-open exploration of language and the imagination -- which seems to take words and alchemically transmute them into charged images -- and it is not hard to see why Lamantia's poetry is far different than that typically encountered. The opening lines of "Touch of the Marvelous," the first poem in "Bed of Sphinxes," suggest Lamantia's startling power: "The mermaids have come to the desert / they have set up a boudoir next to the camel / who lies at their feet of roses // A wall of alabaster is drawn over our heads / by four rainbow men / whose naked figures give off a light / that slowly wriggles upon the sands // I am touched by the marvelous / as the mermaids' nimble fingers go through my hair...." While Lamantia's automatistic poetry blossoms without regard to any consciously imposed 'agenda,' his values are apparent. Lamantia's poetry seeks revolution: a world where desire, love, the wild, birds, and the ancient reign; a world where, as Lautreamont said, "poetry is made by all." But there is also an apocalyptic, nightmarish edge to some of the poems; Lamantia is not a poet whose work can be easily categorized. His range is astonishing . For me, Lamantia's poems bridge the horizon and zenith. His words bring together the depths of caves and the summits of mountains. I strongly suggest that you lie down in "Bed of Sphinxes." In Lamantia's jeweled dreams of poems, you will find not only riddles of inspired and marvelous beauty and erudition, but perhaps a few answers too. [This review is a revised version of one first posted on this page in early 1998. That previous review recently disappeared into the cyber-void.]

Philip Lamantia may befuddle or annoy, especially if you prefer poetry of prosaic narration, rational thought, and conventional imagery. For Lamantia is to traditional poetry as Pegasus is to the plow-horse. His poems in "Bed of Sphinxes" spring from the surreal meeting of the conscious and unconscious and then take wing, carrying the reader on a marvelous ride of imagination and adventure.

This collection, which spans his fifty year career which began in 1943 when as a teenager he traveled from his native Frisco to New York and met and was published by Andre Breton and other exiled surrealists, shows well Lamantia's wide-open exploration of the imagination, where he alchemically transmutes words into charged images. The opening lines of "Touch of the Marvelous," the first poem of the book, suggest his often startling power : "The mermaids have come to the desert / they have set up a boudoir next to the camel / who lies at their feet of roses...."

The words most often found in Lamantia's poetry -- "stars," "marvelous," and "luminous" are among the most common -- signal some of the primary concerns of his imagination. His poetry seeks revolution: a world where desire, love, the wild, and the ancients reign and where, as Lautremont said, "poetry is made by all."

So, when you're tired of the stale poetry so common in this too often corrupt and bankrupt world, and when you're ready to bridge the horizon and zenith, the cave and the mountain-top, lie down in "Bed Of Sphinxes." In Lamantia's jeweled dreams of poems, you just might find the answers to a few of the riddles of our troubled existence.

The poems in this collection are dense and obscure, but full of images and graceful lyricism. Their territory is Beat country which seems promising, just be prepared to read each piece over a few times to figure them out. It is modestly rewarding.