Yesterday, we released episode #144 in the PoemTalk Podcast Series, which focuses on three poems from Michael McClure's Ghost Tantras: 39 ("MARILYN MONROE"), 49 ("SILENCE THE EYES!"), and 51 ("I LOVE TO THINK OF THE RED PURPLE ROSE"). Joining host Al Filreis for this program is a panel that includes (from left to right) Selena Dyer, Jonathan Dick, and Jerome Rothenberg.
After a lengthy cataloguing of the various recordings of these poems available on McClure's PennSound author page — including film footage the poet infamously reading to the lions in the San Francisco Zoo — Filreis' PoemTalk blog post on this episode reckons with the "compelling if grandiose claims made for McClure's bellowing with the lions, such as Dennis Hopper's quip, 'Without McClure’s roar there would be no 1960s.'" "Era-naming hyperbole aside," he continues, "what are the effects of McClure's 'mammal patriotism,' his effort to make central to poetry the notion of human utterance as archaic, nonsemantic sound?" For the answer to that question, you'll have to tune in. You can read more about the program by clicking here. The full PoemTalk archives, spanning more than a decade, can be found here.
