Author, Poet, & Retired Professor

ABOUT

Born 1948, Detroit, Mi. Education: BA University of Michigan, MA+30 Western Michigan University. Married 55 years, 3 grown children. Taught Shakespeare, Drama, Creative Writing, Intro to Philosophy, Multicultural Literature, Women’s Studies at Grand Rapids Community College for 22 years; adjunct faculty at Western Michigan University, taught Shakespeare 7 years; school custodian 18 years before that. Kent County Dyer Ives Poetry Competition, first place adult category winner, 1971, 1972. Pushcart Prize winner, 1977. Distinguished Alumni award, GRCC 1984. Award in literature from American Academy/Institute of Arts and Letters, 1988. Nine books and two chapbooks published. Editor and publisher, Big Scream magazine, 1974-2021 (60 issues). Poet Laureate of Grand Rapids, Mi. 2011-2014; editor of three anthologies: Nada Poems (Nada, 1988), Sunflowers & Locomotives: Songs for Allen (elegies for Allen Ginsberg, Nada, 1998), and Song of the Owashtanong: Grand Rapids Poetry in the 21st Century (Ridgeway, 2013). Recent publications include The Train: “Howl” in Chicago (chapbook, Multifarious Press, 2017), and The Invisible Keys: New and Selected Poems 1975-2017 (Ghost Pony Press, 2018). David’s “In Silence” appeared in Chinese translation by Professor Zhang Ziqing as part as group of 9-11 poems in Houston Garden of Verses, and nine of his poems were included in translations by Zhang in Poetry Periodical (Beijing). Dr. Peter Feng also translated two of Cope’s poems for a Chinese online poetry journal, Poetry Sky. David’s poems were translated and discussed in vol. II (1379-1386) of Professor Zhang’s three volume study, A History of 20th Century American Poetry. Cope was the only American poet conferee at the Suining International Poetry Week and Chen Zi’ang Poetry Awards in Sichuan, China (March, 2019). His work from that journey appears in A Bridge Across the Pacific: Leaves for Chen Zi’ang, Guan Yin, and Du Fu (Jabber Publications, 2020). His “River Rouge” appears in RESPECT: The Poetry of Detroit Music, ed. Jim Daniels and M. L. Liebler (Michigan State University Press, 2020). In 2021, David published The Correspondence of David Cope and Allen Ginsberg (1976-1996) (Giant Steps Press). In 2025, Claire Durrand-Gasselin translated eight of his later poems into French, now out for publication in Paris and elsewhere. His Moonlight Rose in Blue: Collected Poems of David Cope 1971-2024, will be published in September 2025. The David Cope Papers are maintained at the University of Michigan Special Collections Resource Center, and his webpage, The Dave Cope Sampler, is online at the Museum of American Poetics.

Foreword to Midnight Rose in Blue: Collected Poems 1971–2024
Compassion and awareness, the heart spoke first, and I set my stamp of approval there, but I have also pursued the ambiguities, the multiple layers of conflicting experience, the paradoxes that force us, blind and deaf, to grope our way without the pat assurances of those so certain they’ve found their way—to move through the darkness of time and retrieve the complexities of vision beyond what machine mentalities with their continuous barrage of debased language, simplistic answers, slogans, political and commercial hounding would program us to ignore, and to play, to strut sweetly with the uncertainties, to dance among the paradoxes. If the poem rings the bells in someone’s clouds, so much am I the happier, yet I would also play and turn the wheel.

My writing began with what Allen Ginsberg identified as the “tradition of lucid grounded sane objectivism . . . following the visually solid practice of Charles Reznikoff and William Carlos Williams,” and while that visual aspect—attentiveness to what Blake called “minute particulars”—has been important to me, my books have developed as a series of experiments constructing interlocking suites using a variety of images as connecting motifs, continuing series (the love poems for Sue, the kayaking adventures on Michigan rivers, mountain climbing and descent into Haleakala caldera, garden work and eco-poems, the poems of war, etc.) and the use of allusions developing intertextual matrix.

I have also deliberately approached style and technique with the idea of maximizing variety, not only continuing the objectivist “postcard” series derivative of Reznikoff and Cendrars, but also developing Kerouacian jazz solo pieces, my own idiosyncratic variations of Middle Eastern ghazals, funky sonnets, dialect testimonies and dramatic monologues involving voices overheard in lunchrooms and on dark streets, vers libre tercets loosely based on the Dantescan model, dream and visionary poems scribbled out of sleep, spatial explorations after WCW’s late models, multi-stanzaed poems set up as an Aleutian chain of stanzas in a sea of silences, Whitmanic prophetic chants and quietly Berrigan-like personal poems.

I am interested in a multi-dimensional language which is both plain and elegant: accessible to those with no knowledge of traditions yet also a feast of techniques and allusions for those with greater knowledge, neither reader barred from the poem. Each poem requires attentiveness to shape and sound. It requires groundwork, sweat; it must be earned and is not a given. One must also “go back to the people” because the poem that is disconnected from human need has no depth or sustenance for those who come to it, as Williams noted. This book is my final statement and here I rest, content, hopeful that even the darkness of this time must pass.

I salute five friends most responsible for guiding me through my career: poet and guide Robert Hayden, who taught me to write what matters and to give it refined critical attention in revision; my wife Suzanne, who stood by me through the many turns of a long marriage, always reminding me to follow my star; Allen Ginsberg, dear friend and mentor over 26 years of working together with the gift of poetry and the importance of poetic communities and friendships; longtime companion and brother poet Jim Cohn, whose journey through the years has paralleled mine as we continuously opened ourselves to each other; and Professor Zhang Ziqing, who translated my poems and published them in China, followed not only the Beats and Postbeat poets to make their works available for Chinese poets and scholars, and who is responsible for my life-changing journey to China in 2019.

ONLINE SOURCES & INTERVIEWS

David Cope Papers 1907–2023
https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-scl-ams0196

David Cope Oral History of Poetry in Grand Rapids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKiFIyA2bBE

The Dave Cope Sampler
http://www.poetspath.com/Dave_Cope/

Simon Warner interview
https://simonwarner.substack.com/p/beat-soundtrack-5-david-cope

Completing a Life Circle: My Correspondence with Allen Ginsberg; David Cope Interviewed by Kirpal Gordon (Giant Steps Press blog)
https://giantstepspress.blogspot.com/2016/06/completing-life-circle-my.html

Postmodern Renaissance Man: Gordon Ball. Interviewed by David Cope
http://giantstepspress.blogspot.com

On Song of the Owashtanong: Grand Rapids Poetry in the 21st Century
88.1 FM WYCE.org interview (2013)

On Poesy & Work: with Maura Cavell (2000) (The Dave Cope Sampler)

David Cope: Scream with Rhyme and Clarity. Interview by Michael Limnios (Blues Gr: Keep The Blues Alive, 2015)
http://blues.gr/profiles/blogs/interview-with-poet-editor-david-cope-founder-of-nada-press

Allen Ginsberg’s Foreword to Quiet Lives, my first book (1973)
I have been much absorbed in David Cope’s poetry as necessary continuation of tradition of lucid grounded sane objectivism in poetry following the visually solid practice of Charles Reznikoff & William Carlos Williams. Though the notions of “objectivism” were common for many decades among U.S. poets, there is not a great body of direct-sighted “close to the nose” examples of poems that hit a certain ideal objectivist mark—”No ideas but in things” consisting of “minute particulars” in which “the natural object is always the adequate symbol,” works of language wherein “the mind is clamped down on objects,” and where these “Things are symbols of themselves.” The poets I named above specialized in this refined experiment, and Pound touched on the subject as did Zukofsky and Bunting, and lesser but interesting figures such as Marsden Hartley in his little known poetry, and more romantic writers such as D. H. Lawrence. In this area of phanopoeiac “focus,” the sketching of particulars by which a motif is recognizably significant, David Cope has made, by the beginning of his third decade, the largest body of such work that I know of among poets of his own generation.

BLURBS

“Hid in Grand Rapids, Mich., [Cope] follows the late Dr. Williams & his magnificent peer Reznikoff in practicing direct treatment of phanopoeic word, his gift as solid as theirs. . . . His poems seem made of vivid details out of the corner of his eye—precise sketches, concise form.”
—Allen Ginsberg

“I salute your compassionate realism.”
—Carl Rakosi

“Cope renders the particulars of each scene with a striking intensity . . . full of insight and feeling.”
—George Drury, Jr., poet, publisher

“D. C.’s intensive clear details always a pleasure . . . very solid clear human texts.”
—Robert Creeley

“Beyond having a marvelous eye, [Cope’s] mastery of phrasing at times seems to peel the skin from his subjects. The poems become transcendent when they begin to dwell on his favorite subject—the human gesture.”
—James Ruggia, New Jersey poet

“The news that stays news is the modus operandi. . . . bracing, smart, . . . luminous and tight by turn. I enjoy Cope’s stretch from familial to sublime, and his consummate poet’s generous heart.”
—Anne Waldman

“David Cope’s poetry reaches into true silence and from that place within himself derives its indelible sanity of gothic dreams, direct musicality, sustained multiple resonance, objectivist heart, vernacular ear. His work is a paradox of detached lyricism confronting the abysses of his soul.”
—Jim Cohn, poet and curator of The Museum of American Poetics

“It is with passion, honesty, a commitment to history, and an investment to be understood not only by his contemporaries but by generations to come, that Cope effortlessly pulls the reader into his descriptive language on this journey through history.”
—Sun Hong, Professor, Renming University

“These later poems are some of [David’s] most vulnerable, dramatic and stellar. At times, these poems seem, in sequence, to present a microstaged neuroproduction—Dantean, Shakespearean in scope—at once theatrical and literary, each poem reflecting a deep awareness that the pilgrim’s transformation over the course of the journey is the only destination.”
—Jim Cohn / 17 November 2023

DAVID COPE IN PRINT & ONLINE

Thanks to the following publishers of my poems, prose, and interviews over the course of my career, and to their editors for supporting my work.

Books

• Quiet Lives. Foreword by Allen Ginsberg. Clifton, New Jersey: Humana, 1983.
• On the Bridge. Clifton, New Jersey: Humana, 1986
• Fragments from the Stars. Clifton, New Jersey: Humana, 1990.
• Coming Home. Totowa, New Jersey: Humana, 1993.
• Silences f-or Love. Totowa, New Jersey: Humana, 1998.
• Turn the Wheel. Totowa, New Jersey: Humana, 2003.
• The Invisible Keys: new and selected poems. Madison, Wi.: Ghost Pony, 2018.
• A Bridge Across the Pacific: Leaves for Chen Zi’ang, Guan Yin, and Du Fu. Chicago: Jabber, 2019.
• The Correspondence of David Cope & Allen Ginsberg 1976-1996. Freeport, N.Y.: Giant Steps, 2021.
• Moonlight Rose in Blue: Collected Poems 1971-2024. Grand Rapids: Grand River Poetry Press, 2025. (forthcoming in September 2025)

Chapbooks

• Poems from Moonlight Rose in Blue. David Cope at the Scarab/Detroit. Grandville, Mi.: Nada, 2009.
• Masks of Six Decades: poems 2003-2010. Grandville, Mi.: Nada, 2010.
• The Train: Howl in Chicago. Chicago: George Drury/Multifarious Press, 2017.

Anthologies

• “Crash.” The Pushcart Prize II: Best of the Small Presses. Ed. Bill Henderson. Avon, 1978.
• Two poems and Fragments, Ginsberg’s choice. New Directions Anthology #37. Ed. J. Laughlin, with Peter Glassgold and Frederick R. Martin. New Directions, 1978.
• Five Poems. City Lights Journal #4. Selection by Allen Ginsberg. Ed. Mendes Monsanto. San Francisco: City Lights, 1978.
• “Modern Art” and “Party Talk.” Friction 5/6: Obscure Genius Issue. Ed. Allen Ginsberg and Randy Roark. Laocoon, 1984.
• “Marsden Hartley: Forgotten Classic” appeared in Poetry Project Newsletter 116 (November 1985).
• “Last Words” appeared in AND 1.1 (November 1986).
• “19 Poetic Tools” appeared in my collection of classic poems and poetics texts, A Poet’s Sourcebook (GRCC, 1997).
• “Congratulations” appeared in Allen Ginsberg’s festschrift volume, Best Minds (Lospecchio, 1986).
• “Allen Ginsberg: The Challenge of Compassionate Awareness” appeared in The Grand Rapids Press. 20 April 1997. E1.
• “Paean and Lament for the Wing’d Heel’d Herald” showed up in The Paper 2.4 Jan.25-31, 2001. Grand Rapids, Mi.
• Simon Warner’s interview, “Feeling the bohemian pulse: Locating Patti Smith within a post-Beat tradition” was conducted in 2011. Portions appeared in Text and Drugs and Rock’n’Roll: the Beats and Rock Culture. Bloomsbury, 2014.
• “Sirens & Flashing Lights Stop.” Poems for the Nation. Ed. Allen Ginsberg, Andy Clausen, Eliot Katz. New York: Seven Stories, 2000.
• Three poems. Hazmat Review: The Beat Issue. Ed. Norm Davis. Rochester, N.Y.: Clevis Hook Press, 2000.
• “Tender Petals for Calm Crossing.” Van Gogh’s Ear: Poetry for the New Millenium. Ian Ayres, ed. New York: Committee on Poetry/Paris: French Connection Press. Spring 2003.
• “Labor Day.” Visiting Walt: Poems Inspired by the Life and Work of Walt Whitman. Ed. Sheila Coghill and Thom Tammaro. Iowa City: Iowa U P, 2003.
• “Crash.” Poems to Live By in Troubling Times. Ed. Joan Murray. Boston: Beacon P, 2006.
• “The Rhododendron.” Sunday Profile: A Well-Versed Man. By Beth Loechler. The Grand Rapids Press. Section J: pages 1-2. April 9, 2006.
• 15 poems. Sins and Felonies. Ed. G. F. Korreck. Grand Rapids: Barbaric Yawp P, 2007.
• “A Dream of Jerusalem.” Poetry & Sculpture: Poetry based on the works of sculptor Jaume Plensa. Grand Rapids: Frederik Meijer Gardens, 2008.
• Selection of poems. Fresh Grass. Ed. Roseanne Ritzema. Rockford: Presa, 2009.
• 9 poems. Song of the Owashtanong: Grand Rapids Poetry in the 21st Century. Ed. David Cope. Roseville: Ridgeway, 2013.
• “the dharma at last.” Poetry in Michigan/Michigan in Poetry. Ed. William Olsen and Jack Ridl. Kalamazoo: New Issues, 2013.
• “River Rouge.” Long Poem Masterpieces of the Postbeats. Ed. Jim Cohn. Napalm Health Spa, 2013. Online.
• “The Return.” Great Falls/Passaic River Anthology. Ed. Maria Mazziotti Gillan. Paterson: PCCC, 2014.
• “For Anne at 70.” Napalm Health Spa Special Edition 2015: Anne Waldman / Keeping the World Safe for Poetry. Ed. Jim Cohn and Eleni Sikileanos. Napalm Health Spa, 2015. Online.
• Essay on Postbeat Poets and my work “What Thou Lovest Well.” By Zhang Ziqing. Trans. by Zhang Ziqing. Journal of Jianghan University. Wuhan: Jianghan University, 1015.
• 9 Poems in translation. Poetry No. 1. Ed. Zhao Si. Beijing, China. 2018.
• 4 poems and discussion in Chinese. Zhang Ziqing. A History of 20th Century American Poetry. Volume II of III volumes. Beijing: 2018.
• “River Rouge.” RESPECT: Poems About Detroit Music. Ed. Jim Daniels and M. L. Liebler. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2020.
• “Ukraine.” Busy Griefs, Raw Towns: a poetic response to the brutality of war in Ukraine. Ed. G. F. Korreck. Grand Rapids: Schuler Books/Chapbook Press, 2022.

Journals

• Big Scream, Blind Alley, In The Light, Windows in The Stone, Delirium, The World, Roof, Bombay Gin, New Blood, Ferro Botanica, Wonderland, The Grand Rapids Press, Long Shot, Action, Pay Up Dead Beat, Ahnoi, Planet Detroit, La Voz, The New York Quarterly, Lactuca, We, Big Fireproof Box, Big Hammer, Black Swan Review, Napalm Health Spa, Lame Duck, Vajradhatu Sun, Headcheck Number Four, Heaven Bone, Indefinite Space, Big Fish, Shambala Sun, The Wayne Literary Review, The Ann Arbor Poetry Forum, The Brooklyn Review, The Hazmat Review, Bill Freeman’s Magazine, The Louisiana Review, Van Gogh’s Ear, The Woodstock Journal, The Paterson Literary Review, Wildflowers: a Woodstock mountain poetry anthology, Presa, The Newark Review, Street Value #2, The Café Review, Contemporary International Literature (Beijing), Poetry Spoken Here (podcast, 11 August 2016).
• Also: “Silent March Candlelight Vigil for George Floyd,” “Alvin Ailey’s Ode,” “Hour of the Ghost Dance” and “Onward, as Creeley Used to Sign” in Indefinite Space and “Ukraine” and “Antietam” on the David Cope bio page. Poets of the Planet.

As Editor and Publisher

• Big Scream Magazine. Publication of over 200 poets over 47 years of publication. Issues 1-60. See http://www.poetspath.com/Dave_Cope/ – Click on Editing and Publication for a selection of covers from these issues, illustrating the growth and changes in my journal.

Online

• The David Cope Papers 1907-2024. The University of Michigan Special Collections Resource Center. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Hatcher Library. https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-scl-ams0196
• The Dave Cope Sampler. The Museum of American Poetics. Jim Cohn, curator. http://www.poetspath.com/Dave_Cope/
• The Maura Gage Interview appears on The Dave Cope Sampler at the Museum of American Poetics (www.poetspath.com). Oct.-Nov. 2000.
• “A Memento for Diane.” Big Bridge 14. 2010. Ed. Michael Rothenberg. http://www.bigbridge.org/BB14/features.htm [Note: offline source at this time]

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