William Howard Cohen was a college professor, poet, and mentor to many young, aspiring writers wherever he lived and worked, Kentucky, Florida, Illinois. I have written about Bill Cohen and his poetry more than once on this blog and was very pleasantly surprised to see others who had been mentored by Bill Cohen respond very favorably to his writing and his encouragement and criticism of their writing. William Howard Cohen was an internationally recognized expert on Haiku and served as the American Cultural Delegate in the area of poetry at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. Cohen was also an outspoken and highly effective environmental advocate who fought bravely and well against strip mining in Appalachia. If you read the comments section at the end of this blog post about William Howard Cohen, you will see that this man was not just a writer who spent his time sitting in a cloister somewhere writing. He also spent a great deal of that time teaching, training, mentoring and encouraging young writers whom he met as a result of his books, teaching, poetry readings, and attendance at other events.
The photo above is William Howard Cohen and his wife, Delores Cohen, at Alice Lloyd College about 1968 or so.
William Howard Cohen also made a conscious effort to constantly improve his knowledge of art in all its form and frequently attended exhibitions of painting and sculpture wherever he might be traveling. The book we are discussing here, "Sacramental Spaces: The Salvaged World of Raymond Barnhart", contains twenty-one poems which Cohen produced and published after attending an exhibition somewhere of the work of Barnhart. It is a very difficult piece of Cohen's work to locate on used book websites and was apparently issued as a small, self-published book, perhaps printed by Pippa Valley Printing in Knott County Kentucky where Cohen was teaching at Alice Lloyd College at the time. Amazingly, the one copy of the book which I have been able to locate is autographed by Raymond Barnhart himself and I found it at a used books and collectible store in California which sells items through one of the large used book clearinghouses online. According to the blog "Litterata":
"In his youth, Raymond Barnhart worked as a riverboat deck-hand, carpenter, fruitpacker, and window designer before becoming an artist. A painter during the first half of his life, Barnhart received his MFA from Ohio State University, and he was an instructor at the University of Kentucky for 32 years before leaving and moving to California in 1958." (Litterata Blog, available May 30, 2021, at 7:15am)
That blog post, if you read it, will show you that the blogger was highly impressed by the assemblage sculptures which Barnhart produced as were many others including William Howard Cohen who most likely saw and exhibition of Barhhart's work at the University of Kentucky where he he taught for several years before leaving for California where he died in 1996 at the age of 93. My recent acquisition of William Howard Cohen's little book of poetry and the creation of this blog post are both quite timely since there is an ongoing exhibition of collage and assemblage which contains at least some pieces of the work of Raymond Barnhart at the University of Kentucky Art Museum at 405 Rose Street on the UK campus. I will attend that exhibition since it runs until July 10, 2021. The museum website does state that they are operating under Covid 19 restrictions and do require hourly reservations for visitors. But, admission is free. I will be attending that exhibition and so should you, IF YOU ARE FULLY VACCINATED!
The phot above is William Howard Cohen, far right with beard, Kenneth Baldridge, and four unknown Alice Lloyd College students.
Now that we know who Raymond Barnhart is, let's actually address the primary reason for this blog post, the poetry of William Howard Cohen which is contained in his ode to Raymond Barnhart. This collection contains 21 poems all of which were inspired by the art of Raymond Barnhart. Each of the poems appears to have been motivated by a single work by Barnhart although it is possible one or two could have been inspired by an overall exhibition of the artists work. Barnhart created his assemblage pieces by using found objects and, if we refer once again to the "Litterata" blog piece about him we learn that:
"While teaching a design and wood sculpture class in Mill Valley, and from his contacts with the Bauhaus novement, Barnhart found his true medium: assemblage. His assemblage work is classical in the sense of composition, aesthetics, and design. From the Conceptualists, he incorporated the use of found objects. And he made a just marriage of it. But whereas Conceptualists diverged, exploring man's alienation in society, Barnhart's work is full of hope and compassion: it reflects the linear sentiments of art, beauty, balance, harmony; it transmorgifies limitation as set in stone by various art movements: it remains unswerving in its devotion to the aesthetics of art. Wind-blasted, sun-bleached, and burnt materials juxtaposed against man-made rusted and tarnished discards become the poetry of deserted places. Fellow Sonoma County artist John Kessel said, "Raymond Barnhart assembles diverse, objects to create visual poems that evoke either man's place in nature—or man in contemplation before nature. Some pieces tell a story, and all are poems which convey an impact. This is an art of redemption and reconciliation." Litterata Blog, Available May 30, 2021, at 7:15am)
Both William Barnhart and William Howard Cohen believed that nothing should be wasted. In the 1960's when I knew Bill Cohen, he was already involved in the very early effort to save the earth, the natural environment, and wasted nothing of value. Barnhart created his art from the things others had thrown away. It was no surprise that William Howard Cohen would have been inspired by the works of Barnhart and would have written a little book of poetry to commemorate that work. These 21 poems are all short and, as a person who has read and studied much, if not most, of the work of William Howard Cohen, this little book contains some of the best of his short poems. As an internationally respected expert on Haiku, William Howard Cohen practiced economy of language. He wasted few words in his poetry and this poetry is a fine example of that economy of language. One of my favorite poems is called
"Monument"
The burnt pylons of time
Rise Heavenward-
The skeletal heart
Rides the air midway
Suspended
Between the finite
and the infinite. (William Howard Cohen, "Sacramental Spaces...")
That poem paints a myriad of pictures in our minds as we read it. We see images left by old fires rising into the air. are they burnt timbers or are they really old highway pylons used in a Barnhart assemblage? This brief poem, only seven lines, twenty-one words, a minimal amount of utterances on the keys of typewriter are what economy of language is all about. There are only four more words in that poem than in a traditional Haiku and, while the poem is not Haiku, it is reminiscent of some of the best of Haiku. It is William Howard Cohen at his best.
Another of my favorite poems from the book is "World Of Raymond Barnhart" which contains only sixteen words, one less than in a traditional Haiku:
"World Of Raymond Barnhart"
From the broken shards of time
Rainbows of eternity;
From the charred shells of earth
Universes. (William Howard Cohen, "Sacramental Spaces...")
It is always a pleasure to read the work of William Howard Cohen and this little book is an especial pleasure since it has also led me to learn about the work of a man artist whom my old friend and mentor, Bill Cohen, admired. I hope you can locate a copy of "Sacramental Spaces: The Salvaged World Of Raymond Barnhart". You will enjoy it. If you cannot locate a copy of this apparently small edition collection, then consider finding and reading the two books by William Howard Cohen which are more easily located, "The Hill Way Home" and "A House In The Country: Poems From Southern Illinois". They are both well worth reading.
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Addendum: August 27, 2024
I have recently been contacted by first cousin of William Howard Cohen, also a former university professor in Indiana who had read my blog posts about Dr. Cohen and seen that a niece and nephew of Doctor Cohen had left comments on these posts. This cousin, Dr. Paul Newman, P.H.D, is the retired chair of the linguistics department at Indiana University and would like to be able to locate these mutual relatives of his and Dr. Cohen's. They can contact me at rchicks@mrtc.com and I will provide them with Dr. Newman's contact information. Thanks!
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