The Distances

poetry by Olson

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July 20, 2026

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"The Distances" is a poetry collection by Charles Olson, a significant figure in American poetry and a key member of the Black Mountain poets. Olson, a poet and literary theorist, is known for his association with the Black Mountain movement and his influence on post-World War II American poets.12

Olson's poetics, outlined in his essay "Projective Verse", emphasized poetry as a transfer of energy from the poet to the reader. He advocated for an "open field" in poetry, where the form organically arises from the content, using the duration of a human breath as a measure for poetic lines. "The Distances" was published in 1960, alongside other works like "Call Me Ishmael" and his magnum opus, "The Maximus Poems".12

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Charles Olson
Other works
…Cold Hell, in Thicket (1953), The Distances (1960), and Letters for Origin, 1950–1956 (1969). Posthumous collections of Olson’s work include A Nation of Nothing but Poetry: Supplementary Poems, edited by George F. Butterick (2000), and Collected Prose, edited by Donald Allen and Benjamin Friedlander (1997).
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…Cold Hell, in Thicket (1953), The Distances (1960), and Letters for Origin, 1950–1956 (1969). Posthumous collections of Olson’s work include A Nation of Nothing but Poetry: Supplementary Poems, edited by George F. Butterick (2000), and Collected Prose, edited by Donald Allen and Benjamin Friedlander (1997).
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