Poetry of Paul Goodman

He published several poetry collections in his life, including The Lordly Hudson (1962), Hawkweed (1967), North Percy (1968), and Homespun of Oatmeal Gray (1970).

[6][3] Indeed, Goodman's poetry, fiction, drama, literary criticism, urban planning, psychological, cultural, and educational theory addressed the theme of the individual citizen's duties in the larger society, especially the responsibility to exercise free action and creativity.

[3] While his fiction and poetry was noted in his time, following Growing Up Absurd's success, he diverted his attention from literature and spent his final decade pursuing the social and cultural criticism that forms the basis of his legacy.

[2] Goodman tends to write in traditional formats, albeit loosely, and about his very personal, direct experience, often describing "his" city and circumstances in a style "closer to heightened speech than modernist ellipses".

[7] Poet Harvey Shapiro wrote that the poetry in The Lordly Hudson, Goodman's first solo collection, was "the purest version of his thought ... always serviceable, sometimes awkward ... by rips and starts brilliant.

"[9] Richard Kostelanetz wrote that Goodman's title lyric was his most memorable line:[9] This is our Lordly Hudson hardly flowing under the green-grown cliffs and has no peer in Europe or the East.