Journal Issue
Open this August 1970 issue of Beyond Baroque and the contents begin making their own introductions. It contains 33 named pieces or sections, beginning with Workshop by Lee Byron Jennings, The soldier with his head shot off by Lee Byron Jennings, and From the Neanderthal Camp by Lee Byron Jennings. That opening offers a direct path through the issue, but it is not the only one. A reader can follow the printed order, pause over a familiar contributor, or start with a title that catches the eye. No special background is needed. The magazine explains itself gradually through the choices it makes and through the company each piece keeps.
Workshop by Lee Byron Jennings establishes this number’s particular register. Named forms such as Song for a child at the death of a cat sit beside looser lyrics, so the issue’s variety comes through line, stanza, and rhythm rather than editorial display. The movement toward To Jeffrey Miller gives the number a clear closing direction while leaving its voices distinct. Across 33 poems, formal interest lies in the changes of scale: short, image-driven pieces give way to longer fields of syntax, and each new opening resets the relation between line, breath, and page. The variety reflects the Venice workshop culture around the publication, where experimental practice was less a house style than a shared willingness to let voice, spacing, and sequence determine form.
The contents page also works like a small map. Early entries establish the issue’s first set of voices; around the middle, Two ways of looking at May by Ruth Wire changes the view; the closing stretch reaches To Jeffrey Miller by John Harris. The works differ in length, subject, and manner, yet their placement creates connections that a simple list of names cannot show. The pleasure comes from those changes. A short piece can clear the air after a longer one, a new voice can redirect the mood, and an unexpected title can make an earlier page look different when the reader thinks back to it.
The contributor list includes Lee Byron Jennings, Joseph Hansen, Joe Bransford, John Harris, John Haag, A variation on "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens, S. B. Melly, and James Krusoe, along with 13 additional contributors. Some readers will arrive looking for a particular name; others will meet these contributors here for the first time. Either approach works. The publication details add useful context: the issue was edited by George Drury Smith, published by Beyond Baroque Enterprises, and issued from Venice, California. A journal is also a made object, assembled by people deciding what to print, how to order it, and which voices should share a number. Reading from beginning to end lets those choices appear naturally.
The catalog subjects—Los Angeles poetry, Venice, California, Experimental poetry, Little magazines, and Death and elegy—are useful starting points, especially for searching, but they do not set limits on what a reader may find. For a first visit, begin with Workshop by Lee Byron Jennings, turn next to Two ways of looking at May by Ruth Wire, and finish with To Jeffrey Miller by John Harris. The clean reading edition is designed for that kind of movement. Original scan: 58 PDF pages. Reader’s edition: 48 PDF pages. It keeps the contents in a stable, legible form and makes names and titles easier to find. A source facsimile remains part of the project’s private editorial record, but it is not included in the public upload. What appears here is the reading copy: a practical way to spend time with the issue and discover which pieces invite a return.
Contributors
- Lee Byron Jennings — Poet
- Joseph Hansen — Poet
- Joe Bransford — Poet
- John Harris — Poet
- John Haag — Poet
- A variation on "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens — Poet
- S. B. Melly — Poet
- James Krusoe — Poet
- Donald E. Winters, Jr — Poet
- Ruth Wire — Poet
- Stephen A. Canada — Poet
- David Mark Dashev — Poet
- A. P. Russo — Poet
- Jack Hirschman — Poet
- Jane E. Newton — Poet
- Andrew Salmins & Jane Newton-Salmins — Poet
- Andrew Valdemar Salmins — Poet
- Anne Marie Ross — Poet
- Lynn Henry Shoemaker — Poet
- Susan St. Louis — Poet
- S. S. Veri — Poet
Publication details
Full contents
- Workshop — Lee Byron Jennings [Poem]
- The soldier with his head shot off — Lee Byron Jennings [Poem]
- From the Neanderthal Camp — Lee Byron Jennings [Poem]
- Friends — Lee Byron Jennings [Poem]
- Cormorant — Joseph Hansen [Poem]
- Victim — Joseph Hansen [Poem]
- You infest my life like vermin — Joseph Hansen [Poem]
- By way of explanation — Joe Bransford [Poem]
- The creatures — John Harris [Poem]
- Deathwatch — John Harris [Poem]
- 13 ways of looking at a Blastbird — John Haag [Poem]
- I — A variation on "13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" by Wallace Stevens [Poem]
- Song for a child at the death of a cat — S. B. Melly [Poem]
- Letter to a future son — James Krusoe [Poem]
- To the Monument for the Workers — James Krusoe [Poem]
- Sunday already — Donald E. Winters, Jr [Poem]
- Two ways of looking at May — Ruth Wire [Poem]
- Burnt offering — Ruth Wire [Poem]
- Poem — Stephen A. Canada [Poem]
- For Eliot — David Mark Dashev [Poem]
- These darknesses — A. P. Russo [Poem]
- avigny — Jack Hirschman [Poem]
- Storm — Jane E. Newton [Poem]
- Fertility rite — Andrew Salmins & Jane Newton-Salmins [Poem]
- The bureaucrat — Andrew Valdemar Salmins [Poem]
- Inmate — Anne Marie Ross [Poem]
- Hands — Lynn Henry Shoemaker [Poem]
- Fantasy of the green bears — Lynn Henry Shoemaker [Poem]
- The hunt — Lynn Henry Shoemaker [Poem]
- The tell-tale heart — Lynn Henry Shoemaker [Poem]
- lacquered — Susan St. Louis [Poem]
- Loss among the honkies, — S. S. Veri [Poem]
- To Jeffrey Miller — John Harris [Poem]
Rights and citation
Copyright remains with the respective authors, artists, publisher, or successors.
Copyright Status Unresolved
Rights in the individual contributions and the periodical compilation have not been fully resolved.
*Beyond Baroque*, vol. 1, no. 3, August 1970. Text/Tech Journals, reader’s edition.