Of Indigo and Saffron

“A young reader can be inspired by McClure's radical questioning of the established social order at every turn. . . . McClure, among all the Beat poets, is perhaps the softest, most tender, most yielding.”

— San Francisco Chronicle

“In the beginning—before hippies, Yippies and punks—there were the Beats. Poet and playwright Michael McClure, one of the youngest of the rebel artists, came to the fore in the 1960s with his scandalous theatrical work The Beard, his poetry readings with Jim Morrison and his song “Mercedes-Benz,” made famous by Janis Joplin. The book Of Indigo and Saffron: New and Selected Poems gathers notable McClure works from 1956 to the 21st century.”

— Los Angeles Times

“McClure has not departed from his center-justified, breath-based lines in a career that has spanned more than half a century. . . . Like Philip Whalen, Charles Bukowski, and Jim Morrison (to whom one section is dedicated), McClure infuses ecstatic direct address and colloquial diction with an exquisite sensibility. . . . It's that deep-end quality that keeps generations of fans of Bukowski and Morrison from discovering McClure's work, but it's also what makes him a greater poet than either of them, as this summative volume, given a little indulgence, shows.”

— Publishers Weekly

“McClure's poetry seems as vital to the 21st century as it was to the 20th.”

— Library Journal