Mind Breaths (1978) Signed First Edition Reference

Mind Breaths: Poems 1972–1977 was published by City Lights Books in 1978, collecting work from a period in which Ginsberg’s Buddhist practice deepened significantly. He had taken formal refuge vows with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in 1972 and co-founded the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, in 1974. The poems reflect this shift in orientation — they are more meditative, more attentive to breath and perception, and less politically declamatory than the Vietnam-era work.

The Collection

The title poem, “Mind Breaths,” demonstrates the fusion of Buddhist meditation technique and poetic composition that Ginsberg was developing: attention to the breath becomes attention to perception, which becomes the poem. The method yields a more spacious, less frantic verse than Ginsberg’s earlier prophetic mode — though flashes of political anger and personal confession still punctuate the meditative calm.

The collection also includes “Contest of Bards,” a significant statement about poetics and the poet’s role, and several poems written at Naropa that document the intellectual community Ginsberg was building around the intersection of Buddhism and American avant-garde poetry.

First Edition Identification

Publisher: City Lights Books, San Francisco Publication date: 1978

Signed Copy Market Values

• Signed first edition: $100–$300
• Inscribed copies: $150–$500
• Unsigned first edition: $20–$60

A middle-period collection that appeals particularly to collectors interested in Ginsberg’s Buddhist turn and the Naropa community. Signed copies are readily available from the dealer market.