�Through all those years from the mid 1950s to the publication of her first book Wolf Eyes, in 1974, Joanna McClure wrote quietly, unheralded, and often in the middle of the night in ecstasy, or pain, or drunkenness, or a state of joy. There is probably no more honest, intense, or personal portrait of a period than is made through her poetry �for she is a very sensuous and sensual as well as musical poet". -Michael McClure
While most Beat writers all grew up in urban areas, Joanna McClure grew up on a ranch in Tuscan, Arizona in the Catalina Mountain mesa. Her upbringing was valuable because it inspired her, and made her poetry unique. �These beginnings inform her poetry with a sensitivity to nature absent from much of the Beat writing� (Knight 214). Her love for nature and her memories of the �lonely mesa� continued to influence Joanna�s poetry after she left the desert.
Joanna states, �Growing up in the desert was mostly a time of waiting�soaking in the beauty of the place �but waiting and not even knowing what I was waiting for� (Knight 215).
As an adolescent, Joanna briefly lived in New Mexico, where she studied Spanish, and then she moved back with her family outside Guatemala City. She attended the University of Arizona, studying literature and history. There she met Michael McClure, who brought her into the Beat scene in North Beach. It was there were Joanna blossomed creatively and her relationship with Michael intensified. She states in a biography by Michael McClure, �he [Michael] was startling different. He had exciting ideas, and I was immediately drawn to him. He was a look at another universe� (McClure 377).
In San Francisco, she met many people who inspired her, including Black Mountain expatriate Robert Duncan. �[Robert] was enormously influential upon her poetic sensibility,� (Knight 217) and through him, Joanna learned about art, philosophy and poetry. She also visited Wally and Shirley Berman�s �household-salon� where other Beats gathered to discuss philosophical ideas.
Michael McClure was also becoming very influential in the Beat scene by creating his own voice in the movement and by helping release Ginsberg�s Howl. Joanna was part of the community along with Michael; their group of friends consisted of important figures, such as Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth, Jack Kerouac, Jay DeFeo, and others. Their apartment was a �Beat Commune,� where people like Neal Cassidy would stop by and socialize.
Written
by:
Elisabeth Massie
Last updated: 22 August 2005