Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Michael McClure’s "Ghost Tantra: 1" is an explosive linguistic experiment that defies conventional poetic form, embracing raw, guttural sound as a vehicle for transcendence and primal expression. As part of McClure’s Ghost Tantras series—written as a fusion of chant, incantation, and what he called “beast language”—this poem exemplifies his unique position within the Beat Movement as a poet deeply invested in breaking down the barriers between language, sound, and consciousness.

The poem consists primarily of non-verbal sounds—elongated vowels, repeated guttural consonants, and onomatopoeic roars that evoke something both bestial and sacred. The use of "GOOOOOOOR! GOOOOOOOOOOR! GOOOOOOOOOR!" and "GRAHHH! GRAHH! GRAHH!" suggests an incantation, something closer to shamanic ritual or primal utterance than traditional poetry. By moving away from structured language, McClure forces the reader (or listener) to experience meaning not through logical interpretation but through an intuitive, visceral response. These sounds, unbound by syntax, create an energy field of their own, engaging the body as much as the mind.

McClure’s Ghost Tantras were influenced by his explorations of psychedelics, Buddhism, and his studies of animal communication. His vision was to create a biologic poetry—a direct, unmediated connection between breath, sound, and meaning. The roars and growls in this poem mimic animal speech, aligning with McClure’s belief that human language is just one mode of expression among many in the natural world. In this way, "Ghost Tantra: 1" attempts to dissolve the hierarchy between human intellect and animal instinct, reclaiming the raw, untamed energy of existence.

Yet, amid this torrent of sounds, a line of discernible language appears: "BE NOT SUGAR BUT BE LOVE looking for sugar!" This phrase acts as both a disruption and a guiding principle. The contrast between the abstract sounds and this directive suggests that while language can communicate ideas, its power is not separate from the primal, nonverbal realm. The phrase urges an active engagement with love—not passivity, not mere sweetness ("sugar") but a searching, dynamic force. This aligns with McClure’s broader poetic philosophy, where love, consciousness, and physical experience are not separate but intertwined forces of being.

The poem’s structure is visually chaotic, with its jagged arrangement of capitalized exclamations and stretching vowels. This erratic, unpredictable formatting mimics the experience of listening to an unrestrained, unfiltered chant. The performance aspect is crucial—McClure often read these poems aloud, sometimes to captive lions at the San Francisco Zoo, testing their effects on both human and non-human audiences. The goal was not just to write about the dissolution of boundaries but to enact it, to create a space where language, breath, and being converge in pure sonic energy.

This rejection of traditional linguistic structure places "Ghost Tantra: 1" firmly in the experimental tradition of the Beats, but it also aligns McClure with earlier poetic movements like Dada and Surrealism, where language was deconstructed to reveal its subconscious or pre-rational roots. Like Antonin Artaud’s Theater of Cruelty, which sought to strip language down to pure sound and physical impact, McClure’s Ghost Tantras reject rational discourse in favor of something deeper, wilder, and more immediate.

At its core, "Ghost Tantra: 1" is an assertion of poetry as lived experience, as physical engagement with breath and being. It is not meant to be merely read—it demands to be spoken, shouted, growled, felt. The emphasis on roaring, howling, and vibrating sound positions the poem as an act of transformation, an attempt to reconnect language to the body, to pre-verbal knowledge, and to the rhythms of nature. In this way, McClure offers a radical alternative to conventional poetic meaning: instead of telling, explaining, or describing, "Ghost Tantra: 1" is. It exists as a force—unruly, immediate, alive.

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