Charles Potts

Charles Potts (born August 28, 1943) is an American counter-culture poet. He is sometimes referred to as a projectivist poet and was mentored by Edward Dorn. Raised in rural Mackay, Idaho, Potts left Pocatello, Idaho and Idaho State University in the mid 60s and set out for Seattle, Mexico, and ultimately the location where he rose to literary prominence: the counter cultural hotbed of Berkeley, California.^[1]

There, he founded the Litmus literary magazine and the Litmus publishing company, which published his friend Charles Bukowski's book "Poems written before jumping out of an 8 story window".^[2] Potts' gives an account of his time as a revolutionary hippie in the Berkeley poetry scene, and a psychotic breakdown he suffered there, in his two-part memoir Valga Krusa.^[3]

In the 80s Potts moved to Walla Walla, Washington where he later founded The Temple bookstore, Tsunami publishing, and The Temple Literary Magazine.^[4][5]

Potts' collected works, letters, and publishing materials were housed in the archives of Utah State University's Merrill-Cazier Library in Logan, Utah in 2011.^[6]

Bibliography

Books:

• Kiot: Selected Early Poems, 1963–1977, Blue Begonia Press, Yakima, Washington, 2005
• Compostrella/Starfield, Time Barn Books, Nashville, Tennessee, 2004
• Across the North Pacific, Slough Press, College Station, Texas, 2002
• Lucintite TM, Butcher Shop Press, Oneonta, New York 2002
• Slash and Burn, Blue Begonia Press, with Robert McNeally, Yakima, Washington, 2001
• Prophet/Profit, Poetnoise, with Chris Bodor, Beacon, New York, 2001
• Nature Lovers, Pleasure Boat Studio, Bainbridge Island, Washington, 2000
• Angio Gram, D Press, Sebastopol, California, 2000
• Little Lord Shiva: The Berkeley Poems, 1968, Glass Eye Books, Northampton, Massachusetts, 1999
• Lost River Mountain, Blue Begonia Press, Yakima, Washington, 1999
• Fascist Haikus, Acid Press, Pocatello, Idaho, 1999
• 100 Years in Idaho, Tsunami Inc., Walla Walla, Washington, 1996
• How the South Finally Won the Civil War, Tsunami Inc., 1995
• Loading Las Vegas, Current, Walla Walla, Washington, 1991
• The Dictatorship of the Environment, Druid Books, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1991
• A Rite to the Body, Ghost Dance Press, East Lansing, Michigan, 1989
• Rocky Mountain Man, (Selected Poems) The Smith, New York City, 1978
• Valga Krusa, Litmus Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, 1977
• The Opium Must Go Thru, Litmus Inc., with illustrations by Robert McNeally, 1976
• Charlie Kiot, Folk Frog Press, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1976
• The Golden Calf, Litmus Inc., Salt Lake City, Utah, 1975
• The Trancemigraçion of Menzu, Empty Elevator Shaft Press, San Francisco, 1973
• Waiting in Blood, Rainbow Resin Press, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1973
• Blue up the Nile, Quixote, Madison, Wisconsin, 1972
• The Litmus Papers, Gunrunner Press, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1969
• Little Lord Shiva, Noh Directions, Berkeley, California, 1969
• Burning Snake, Presna De Lagar, Portland, Oregon, 1967
• Blues From Thurston County, Grande Ronde Press, La Grande, Oregon, 1966

References

External links

• Works by or about Charles Potts in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• The Charles Potts School of Thought, Action and Poetry