Michael McClure: California Dreaming the Sixties

It was the fifties in San Francisco, wewere an easy distance from forests and mountains and Big Sur and DeathValley. Some young writers and artists realized that they were part ofthe "Pacific Rim”—and had much in common with China and Japan and Asia.Both in the natural world around them and in their style ofconsciousness.

A new feeling for Nature was born ofthis, and it later became part of "Deep Ecology." The young poets, likeSan Francisco's resident communities of radicals, had a deep anger atthe beginning of the US's massacres in Asia. They began speaking out against the war state and joined together for a reading in September1955.

Allen Ginsberg read "Howl," Gary Snyder read "Berry Feast," Philip Whalen brought his Zen awakening to theevent, Philip Lamantia brought Romantic mysticism, and I read poems ofnature including the first poem denouncing the slaughter of whales byUS Nato forces—"For the Death of 100 Whales." We woke each other upeven more, and the audience opened our eye with their feedback. Forsome of us the sixties started the night of the Six Gallery reading inSan Francisco, September 7th, 1955.