Halloween Poems: a Brief Playlist

With Halloween coming up tomorrow we've sharing our annual playlist of poems celebrating the spookier side of life. With a mix of poets both old and new you're bound to find something to set your nerves on edge.

Lewis Warsh, "Halloween" MP3

Kimberly Lyons, "Halloween Parade" MP3

Aaron Kramer, "Halloween" MP3

Robert Grenier, "Measure's Halloween" MP3

Cecilia Corrigan, "Christmas Halloween is in a body bag..." MP3

Elizabeth Willis, "The Witch" MP3

John Giorno, "The Wisdom of Witches" MP3

Lee Ann Brown, "Witch Alphabet, Mistranslation of Mayakovsky, Pledge & Love" MP3

Robert Duncan, "Witch's Song" MP3

Edgar Allan Poe (read by John Richetti), "Annabel Lee" MP3

Edgar Allan Poe (read by Jerome McGann), "The Raven" MP3

Yuri Andrukhovych, "Werewolf Sutra" MP3

Matthew Rohrer, "Werewolves" MP3

Adrienne Rich, "What Ghosts Can Say" MP3

Michael McClure, "Ghost Tantra #49" MP3

Bernadette Mayer, "Spooky Action from a Distance" MP3

Bob Kaufman (read by Chuck Perrin), "All Hallows, Jack O'Lantern Weather, North of Time" MP3

PoemTalk #189: on Gregory Corso's "Vision of Rotterdam"

We recently released the latest episode in the PoemTalk Podcast series, which focuses on "Vision of Rotterdam" from Gregory Corso's collection Gasoline. For this program, host Al Filreis is joined by a panel including (from left to right) Rita Barnard, J.C. Cloutier, and M.C. Kinniburgh.

Filreis begins his write-up of this new episode on Jacket2 with some provenance for both the poem itself and the recording under discussion: "The poem records or remembers a moment of encounter and geo-historical reflection that took place in September 1957; the reflection casts the poet's visionary eye upon the German bombings of cities in the Netherlands of 1940. Corso performed and recorded the poem in 1969 — at Fantasy Studios on Natoma Street in San Francisco, 1969." "Thus the PoemTalk group decided," he continues, "that we are dealing with a convergence of three crucially distinct times: wartime 1940; Cold War-time (and Beat time) 1957; anti-war (post-)Beat 1969. It's eventually the consensus of the group, as it associationally emerges, that Corso's visionary romanticism, and his detailed, contextual awareness of that tradition, is an apt mode and motivation for this devastating contemplation of cycles of destruction and reconstruction." 

You can listen to this latest program and learn more about the show here. PoemTalk is a joint production of PennSound and the Poetry Foundation, aided by the generous support of Nathan and Elizabeth Leight. Browse the full PoemTalk archives, spanning more than a decade, by clicking here.

Remembering Lou Reed Ten Years Later

We bring this week to a close with a remembrance of iconic singer-songwriter Lou Reed, who died ten years ago today. 

Our PennSound author page for Reed is home to his 2012 appearance at our own Kelly Writers House as the honored guest of that year's Blutt Singer-Songwriter Symposium. That hour long conversation with Anthony DeCurtis, has very usefully been segmented thematically, including individual tracks covering "his early interest in rock and roll and songwriting," "writing rock lyrics about drug culture and the ignored netherworld," "his constantly shifting artistic focuses," "his formal education," "improvisation in relation to his concept albums," and "being unaware of his influence" among others, along with comments on friends, collaborators, and influences, including Delmore Schwartz, Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, Laurie Anderson, Leonard Cohen, Edgar Allan Poe, Bob Dylan, and Metallica. 

When Reed died of liver disease in October 2013, we paid tribute to him here on PennSound Daily, making an argument for his literary bonafides:

From his earliest recordings, Reed established the archetype of literate rock star, blending the urban dystopianism of William Burroughs and Hubert Selby, Jr. with the sensibilities of his Syracuse University mentor, Delmore Schwartz (to whom he dedicated "European Son," the incendiary closing track of 1967's The Velvet Underground & Nico), and while listeners typically relish his memorable (if bedraggled) characters and offbeat sense of narrative, he was certainly capable of formal innovations every bit as adventurous as the stories he told. Consider, for example, the binaural poetics of "The Murder Mystery," (off of the Velvet's 1969 self-titled record, later published as a standalone poem in The Paris Review) alongside John Ashbery and Ann Lauterbach's two-channel realization of the former's "Litany," or Jackson Mac Low's and John Giorno's experiments with multi-track renderings of their works. Brian Eno famously claimed that everyone who originally bought the first Velvet Underground album went out and started a band, and without a doubt there are also a great many poets who were first moved to pick up a pen by Reed's lyrics.

A decade later, his presence is still sorely missed. You can listen to Reed's Blutt conversation by clicking here.

For the Levertov Centennial: Woodberry Oral History Initiative Panel, 2010

Today we celebrate germinal poet Denise Levertov, who was born 100 years ago on October 24, 1923. Listeners looking to learn more about Levertov can check out a wonderful event staged as part of the Oral History Initiative at Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room on March 26, 2010, which features  several of the poet's close friends and associates in conversation.

The event begins with brief preliminary statements by the three participants — Mark Pawlak (poet and editor of Hanging Loose, who befriended Levertov at MIT in 1969), Dick Lourie (founding editor of Hanging Loose Press and a member of Levertov's very first writing workshop in 1965) and Donna Hollenberg (author of the first full-length biography of Levertov) — which is followed by a fifty-minute open discussion, including questions by audience members. Woodberry Poetry Room curator, Christina Davis, who was kind enough to record the proceedings and send them our way, notes that the event had, "some wonderful and unexpected and cacophonous content and its free-form quality elicited much that I could not have foreseen." We're grateful to Christina for her generosity and know that you'll enjoy this spirited and intimate discussion of Levertov's life and times. You can listen in by clicking here.

Tracie Morris and Tongo Eisen-Martin in Hudson, NY, 2023

We kick off this week with a newly-added recording of two stellar poets at Second Ward Foundation in Hudson, NY Billed as "Tracie Morris & Tongo Eisen-Martin—Poetry . Performance . Conversation ." this event was organized by the Flow Chart Foundation and took place on September 22nd of this year. 

The Flow Chart Foundation's announcement invites folks to "Join us for an exciting evening at the Second Ward Foundation in Hudson, NY. Get ready to be blown away by their incredible performances, thought-provoking poetry, and conversation. Prepare to be inspired and energized. Don’t miss out on this unique opportunity to witness the talent of these two exceptional artists. Mark your calendars and get ready for an evening filled with creativity and passion. See you there!"

You'll find this ninety-minute video on PennSound's Tracie Morris author page, which is home to a wide array of readings, interviews, podcasts, radio appearances, and more spanning a quarter century.

George Quasha Reads 'non binding horizon' and 'mirroring by alterity,' 2023

We bring this week to a close with the latest installment of PennSound Contributing Editor Chris Funkhouser's long-running project to document the poetry of friend and neighbor George Quasha. So far this year we've had three previous batches of recordings from Quasha's Waking from Myself: tuning by fire, ripping scales, and flayed flaws & other finagled opacities. Today, Quasha brings that collection to a close with its final two sections, non binding horizon and mirroring by alterity. These recordings run approximately ninety minutes each, and were recorded in Barrytown, NY on September 1st and 29th of this year.

You'll find these recordings on PennSound's George Quasha author page, along with lengthy selections from many of his books including Not Even Rabbits Go Down This Hole, Dowsing Axis, Hearing Other, The Ghost In Between, Verbal Paradise, Glossodelia Attract: Preverbs, The Daimon of Moment: Preverbs, Scorned Beauty Comes Up Behind: Preverbs, Things Done for Themselves: Preverbs, and Polypoikilos: Matrix in Variance: Preverbs, among others. Click here to start listening.

'Poker Blues' (1991) by Les Levine and Ted Greenwald

Today we're highlighting Poker Blues a 1991 video collaboration by artist Les Levine and Ted Greenwald, and published by Museum of Mott Art, Inc. (the conceptual museum Levine founded in 1970).

A marvelous fugue constructed from the lexicon of card players, Poker Blues is filmed in a two-camera setup, alternating between perspectives so that Greenwald becomes his own interlocutor, while Levine remains faceless off-screen. The claustrophobic feel is underscored by quick edits and tight close-ups, along with the looped soundtrack of Diana Ross' "I Love You (Call Me)."

Over at Mimeo Mimeo, Kyle Schlesinger offers up a brief write-up of the film as well as the mimeographed book that resulted from it, noting that "according to Greenwald, the performance was improvised and later transcribed by Levine for the book (above) along with several stills from the film."

We've made video footage of the sixteen-minute film available, along with the isolated audio track. You can experience both by clicking here.

Bern Porter on PennSound

Today we're highlighting our holdings from the influential author, artist, and publisher Bern Porter, perhaps best known for his pioneering work in the field of Found Poetry.

Our earliest recording is parts one and two of "For Our Friends in Germany," recorded by Mark Melnicove in 1979 at the Eternal Poetry Festival in South Harpswell, Maine. Then there's "Aspects of Modern Poetry," a 1982 WBAI program with Bob Holman that was broadcast live. It's presented in two parts that are roughly a half-hour each.

Next, we have the New Wilderness Audiographics cassette release, Found Sounds, whose two sides consist of two separate sessions, the first made on December 2, 1978 with Dick Higgins and Charlie Morrow; the second from May 9, 1981 and featuring Patricia Burgess (tenor saxophone), Glen Velez (bodhrán, cymbal, tambourine), and Morrow (brass, ocarina, and voice). 

Jumping forward to December 1989, we have a recording from "Williamson Street Night" at the Avant Garde, Museum of Temporary Art in Madison, Wisconsin with contributions by Malok, Elizabeth Was & mIEKAL aND, and our final recording is an interview with Higgins and aND from Woodland Pattern Book Center on March 16, 1990. You can browse all of the aforementioned recordings by visiting our Bern Porter author page.

Lorenzo Thomas, "Ego Trip," 1976

We're wrapping up this week in energetic fashion, shining the spotlight on an old favorite track from Lorenzo Thomas that A.L. Nielsen was kind enough to share with us back in 2016. "Ego Trip" features Thomas performing with the Texas State University Jazz Ensemble and was originally released on the album 3rd Ward Vibration Society (shown at right) on the SUM Concerts label in 1976. Lanny Steele is the composer for the track, which rubs shoulders with a cover of Carole King's "Jazzman" and the amazingly-titled suite, "Registration '74. The Worst I've Ever Endured / The Girl on the Steps / Drop and Add."

Internet commenter John Atlas provides a little context for the recording: "The TSU Jazz Ensemble was directed by Lanny Steele, who also founded and directed a nonprofit called Sum Arts. During the 70's and 80's, Sum Arts produced shows by, among others, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Sun Ra, Pharoah Sanders, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, The World Saxophone Quartet, Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor, The Leroy Jenkins Octet, Old and New Dreams, and a host of notable poets. In the process he exhausted an inheritance from his parents, and more."

Thomas' solo voice starts us off riffing on "Stormy Monday"'s litany of days — "Every dog has his day. / Monday is my day / even if it is blue. / Come trifling Tuesday / that's my day too ..." — and is soon joined by congas and funky wah-wah guitars, then a defiant bassline, Rhodes piano, and a fuzzed out lead, before the full ensemble kicks in as Thomas' final syllable echoes out ("I ... I ... I ... I ..."). After a series of solos and some stop-start time changes Thomas returns over the band — "Let me testify! / Every day his his dog, / but I'm tired! / I want the sun shine just over me. / I want the wind blow just over me. / I want your policemen to be just to me." — which leads into the track's closing section.

You can listen to this smoldering track on PennSound's Lorenzo Thomas author page along with a slew of readings and talks from 1978 up until just a few years before his death in 2005.

Zukofsky's '"A"-24' Act I Performed at UCSD, 1986

Today we highlight a recently-added recording of Act I of Louis Zukofsky's "A"-24, made by a group of poets that included Dorothy Roberts, Brad Westbrook, Bill Luoma, Becky Roberts, and Chuck Cody, which was staged as part of the New Writing Series at UCSD. Running twenty-four minutes, this recording was made on April 11, 1986. It's one of three performances of "A"-24 that you'll find on PennSound's Zukofsky author page, the other two presented by a cohort of Bay-Area poets — Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Kit Robinson and Barrett Watten with Bob Perelman on piano — at both San Francisco's Grand Piano and UC Davis in 1978.

For those interested in hearing more from the final installment of Zukofsky's most iconic work, his PennSound author page contains several recordings of him reading from "A"-24, made at Bard College, Glassboro State College, and Temple University, all made in the course of 1972. Other sections from "A" documented on Zukofsky's page include 2, 4 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23. Listene in by clicking here.

Celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving with "North of Invention'

Today our neighbors to the north celebrate their Thanksgiving Day, and we can't think of a better way to mark the occasion than revisiting the marvelous North of Invention: A Canadian Poetry Festival, which was co-organized by Sarah Dowling and Charles Bernstein, at the Kelly Writers House. Extensive audio and video documentation from the multi-day event is available on PennSound's homepage for the event. Here's a description of the festival's aims, taken from its event page on the KWH website:

North of Invention presents 10 Canadian poets working at the cutting edge of contemporary poetic practice, bringing them first to the Kelly Writers House, then to Poets House in New York City for two days of readings, presentations and discussion in each location. Celebrating the breadth and complexity of poetic experimentation in Canada, North of Invention features emerging and established poets working across multiple traditions, and represents nearly fifty years of experimental writing. North of Invention aims to initiate a new dialogue in North American poetics, addressing the hotly debated areas of "innovation" and "conceptual writing," the history of sound poetry and contemporary performance, multilingualism and translation, and connections to activism.

Poets involved in the festival include Lisa Robertson, M. NourbeSe Philip, Stephen Collis, Christian Bök, Nicole Brossard, Adeena Karasick, a.rawlings, Jeff Derksen Fred Wah and Jordan Scott, and the full schedule includes both readings and presentations from all participants. You can start exploring this wonderful resource by clicking here. A companion feature of the same name, edited by Dowling, was published by Jacket2 in 2013, and is likewise well worth your time.

Allen Ginsberg on 'Stonewall Nation,' 1978

Today we're highlighting a real treasure from the audio archives of Robert Creeley: Allen Ginsberg's appearance on Stonewall Nation — hosted by Alex Van Oss, on Buffalo's WBFO-FM — on this day, forty-five years ago.

Joined by Peter Orlovsky and Al Hershberger, Ginsberg, no stranger to speaking candidly about his queerness (or any other topic), holds forth on a variety of topics, from his closeted youth and coming out to his family, along with the Beat Generation's relationship to nature, and contemporaneous political topics like California's Briggs Amendment — which he initially approaches from a literary perspective, highlighting classic authors (from Whitman to Wilde, Genet to Plato) who California teachers would be banned from assigning — as well as the Rocky Flats Nuclear Plant.

The show begins with a performance of "Gospel Noble Truths" (in a different arrangement than what would become Ginsberg's standard, and with some slight lyrical variations), and also includes excerpts from the recently-written "'Don't Grow Old,'" concerning Ginsberg's coming out to his father, and ends with a performance of "Everybody Sing" (which famously asserts that "everybody's just a little bit homosexual, whether they like it or not"). To listen, click here to visit our Allen Ginsberg author page.

Congratulations to National Book Award Finalists Perez and Shockley

This week saw the announcement of this year's National Book Award finalists, including two PennSound authors — Craig Santos Perez and Evie Shockley — nominated in the Poetry category alongside John Lee Clark, Brandon Som, and Monica Youn.

In the judges' citations, Perez is praised for "observ[ing] and assert[ing] storytelling as an act of resistance — a written form of 'åmot,' the Chamoru word for 'medicine' — in from unincorporated territory [åmot], the fifth installment in his series dedicated to his homeland of Guåhan (Guam)." On Perez's PennSound author page you can listen to readings from earlier installments in the from unincorporated territory series, in readings from Oakland and our own Kelly Writers House, along with a 2009 appearance on Cross Cultural Poetics, hosted by Leonard Schwartz.

The judges also hailed Shockley's suddenly we for "play[ing] with visuals, sounds, and poetic form to pay homage to Black feminist visionaries, both living and departed, of a collective 'we.'" Visitors to Shockley's PennSound author page can browse a wide variety of recordings — of readings, talks, and interviews — spanning nearly twenty years.

We congratulate both poets, along with the other nominees, on this tremendous honor

and will look forward to November 15th, when the winner will be announced.

Apply to Be Philadelphia's Next Poet Laureate

The City of Philadelphia is currently accepting applications for its next Poet Laureate! 

The Free Library of Philadelphia — which administers the program with guidance from "a governing committee composed of local poets, educators, arts-organization professionals, and Free Library staff members" — has information on how you can apply on their website. Per their invitation, they're looking for candidates who "will demonstrate a commitment to the power of poetry to inspire people throughout Philadelphia's neighborhoods," and over the course of their two year term (running from 2024–2025), they will "mentor two Youth Poet Laureates ... and engage with the city through readings, events, and a signature project of their choosing."

Candidates must be current residents of Philadelphia and will need to meet other eligibility requirements. The deadline for applying is by 5:00PM on Friday, October 13, 2023. The application form can be found here, and those in need of more information can write PoetLaureate@freelibrary.org.