From the Lost Land (Schizo-poem)

In 1974, Jacques Derrida published an extraordinary book titled _Glas_. There is nothing in the history of philosophy like it. Nor is there anything in American poetry that comes as close to _Glas_ in its formal proceeding as André Spears’ mind-boggling FROM THE LOST LAND. A thrillingly wild, epic poem that seems written by Charles Olson on ayahuasca takes up one side of the page; a serial Wunderkammer of mesmerizing quotations that seems compiled by John Bartlett on mushrooms takes up the other. There are very few works in American poetry that approach the intertextual energies and breadth of learning on display by Spears. Off the radar screens of the poetry trading floors by his own choice, now in late career, he is one of the most singular poets at work in the English language.