Scenes of Life at the Capital

Written from 1969 to 1971, West Coast Beat poet Philip Whalen’s Scenes of Life at the Capital is a lasting testament to the ambition, range, powers, and devotion of this crucially important American voice. Positioned among the Buddhist temples of Kyoto, Whalen looks across the ocean to address the new frontiers, political problems, and transformative hopes of the United States of the 1960s-so much of which still resonates today. In this new edition-with a deep and enlightening afterword by David Brazil-Whalen’s poem is further cemented as a fundamental work in American literary history.