James' Creations
For him, this meant a constant stream of fantastical creations, tackling the beautiful and the ugly with a lyrical tongue, often in cheek. With 23 books and 23 films, he has a broad range of work that tittilates any mind.
James Broughton believed in a life of “adventure not predicament.”
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JAMES’ BOOKS
The blank page charmed James Broughton. He loved to see what words looked like as he wrote them, their delicious shapes filling the page, sounds echoing in word song. He wrote in journals daily – and also wrote on many small slips of paper. He wrote caring cards to friends constantly. In a lifetime that spanned 86 years, James wore many hats, but “poet” was the one he was always comfortable in. He wrote and rewrote. Always improving and following his motto: Simplify, Clarify, Vivify. He produced 23 eminently readable books of poetry and prose – each unique. His poetry ranges from the silly and whimsical to the philosophical and profound. Throw in erotic, and spiritual and you’ve begun to cover the wide range of Broughton’s work.
Packing up for Paradise
Graffitti for the John’s of Heaven
Androgyne Journal
Ecstasies
Making Light of It
Hooplas
Coming Unbuttoned
Special Deliveries
JAMES’ FILMS
When James Broughton was 30, he frequently contemplated suicide. Then James began making films and thoughts of his own extinction disappeared for good. That was the 1940’s and cinema was still a young medium. Today, James Broughton is often called the “father of West Coast experimental film.” James made 23 deeply personal, poetic, soulful films ranging from 3 to 45 minutes in length. These films set a standard for cinematic expression, combining mythological imagery, experimental visions, path-breaking nudity and humorous life lessons.
SOME JAMES BROUGHTON POETRY
James Broughton was a poet in the tradition of Rumi, Hafiz, William Blake, Walt Whitman, and other ecstatic, Divine Trickster poets who trick, tempt, tease, and seduce us into a direct, playful, and wondrous relationship with life, God, nature, and each other. He read incessantly. Among the influences he listed: “folk songs, rhyming games, early Elizabethan lyricists, Walt Whitman, e.e. cummings, Wallace Stevens, Hopkins, Morgenstein…. Yes, Dylan Thomas too, and Edith Sitwell. And Auden.” Among the poetic concepts he played with: High Kukus (aphoristic storytelling haiku), Godbody (the divine body), and the Divine Androgyne. His poetry ranges from silly, philosophical, to erotic, and spiritual.
Here are a few examples of his poetry. All of James’ poetry can be found in his many books, listed above.
Big Joy Kyrie
Big Joy have mercy upon us
Deliver us from dread
from fret funk and glum
scowl sneer and fidget
Big Joy have pity upon us
Deliver us from droop
from flinch fuss and squirm
sham shame and dither
Big Joy shed grace upon us
Deliver us from daunt
from whine whimper and pout
chafe vex and blooper
O Big Joy rescue us from the
petty the inane the vacuous the mediocre
and the triumphantly stupid
Song of the Bed
O everything important in life
occurs upon a bed.
It’s where you cry when you are born
and where you lie when dead.
You spend a third of your life in bed
with sickness, sex and sleeping.
You can have a good laugh with your love in bed
though it’s also used for weeping.
In a bed the most fantastic things
are hoped for and conceived.
It’s where you dream, it’s where you scheme,
and where you are deceived.
It’s where on earth you come to birth
and most of childhood spend.
It’s where you come and where you don’t
and where you come to an end.
This Is It #2
This is It
This is really It.
This is all there is.
And it’s perfect as It is.
There is nowhere to go
but Here.
There is nothing here
but Now.
There is nothing now
but This.
And this is It.
This is really It.
This is all there is.
And It’s perfect as It is.