Behold the Behemouth - The Collected Poems of Gray Barker [Gray Barker]

[UFOlogy] [Poetics] [High Weirdness]

Behold the Behemouth - The Collected Poems of Gray Barker 

Gray Barker

Apport Editions, PA. 2026. Paperback. New distro stock.

From the publisher:

"A master storyteller, prankster, and mainstay of the UFO world, Gray Barker (1925-1984) is best known for his bizarre tales of Men in Black, the Mothman, and the Philadelphia Experiment. Barker is widely recognized for his skill as a prose stylist in books like They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers--skills that he developed through a lifelong practice of composing poetry, most of which remained unpublished at the time of his death.

In Beholod the Behemouth, Gabriel Mckee (author of the biography The Saucerian: UFOs, Men in Black, and the Unbelievable Life of Gray Barker) compiles all of Barker's surviving poetry, from his early experiments as a college student through enigmatic verse about UFOs and other uncanny subjects in his later career.

At turns melancholy, otherworldly, and side-splittingly hilarious, Barker's poetical writings enrich the picture of midcentury ufology in general and the life of this peculiar literary outsider in particular."

Good on Apport for getting this into the world, and for Salitters in laying it all out for us. I quite enjoyed running through this one - Barker's poetry is good! He's funny! He's not overly verbose! The terse verse presented here runs the gamut from occult mythological incantations to dad jokes taken to high art. Recommended.