Archive by Author

Forbes, Calvin 2005

Wednesday, March 2, 2005
with Rosellen Brown

A good chair a firm bed and you
Who said men aren’t domestic lied
My blues won’t make you blue
Never regret the world left outside

– Calvin Forbes, “Room 340”

Broadside of “Room 340” by Calvin Forbes

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Let the juices of watermelons sparkle, be candles
Near the shore. Yesterday’s rind is today’s
Twenty-four year old nostalgia. Listen–
Save the black seeds, and please laugh at your face.
The sea comes into my left ear on a visit, turns pink
Then goes away. I drop the seashell, return gingerly

– Calvin Forbes, “Poem On My Birthday”

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Flint, Roland 1994

Thursday, January 13, 1994
with Garrison Keillor

In his Saturday woodcraft classes,
During the war, to tall John Bina
We were equally poets, who taught us
To make ducks, guns, or dowels from wood.

– Roland Flint, “First Poem”

Continue reading this poem in Roland Flint’s book, “Easy”⇒

Listen to Roland Flint’s 1994 reading with Garrison Keillor at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Roland Flint begins at 21:50 minutes.

Any day’s writing may be the last,
He’s reminded at 2 in the morning,
Making this year’s last Italian
Notes, before readying his machine
And self to get aboard the bigger
Machine and fly, Dio Volente, home.

– Roland Flint, “Prayer”

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Watch an interview with Roland Flint:

The craft of Roland Flint

The late poet Roland Flint speaks with Linda Pastan during his 1999 service as Maryland Poet Laureate. A former professor at Georgetown University and author of seven books of poetry, Flint talks of his last collection, Easy, with the poet Pastan. They discuss the irony and “reverberation” of the title poem after Flint reads it.

More info on Roland Flint⇒

Ferlinghetti, Lawrence 1986; 2002; ’03; ’06; ’14

Friday, April 4 1986
Thursday, October 17, 2002
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Sunday, June 26 2006
Thursday, October 2, 2014

The dove-white gulls
on the wet lawn in Washington Square
in the early morning fog
each a little ghost in the gloaming

– Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “I Genitori Perduti”

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Listen to Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s 2002 reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Lawrence Ferlinghetti begins at 10:34 minutes.

Buy the audio for Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s reading below⇓

Audio recording of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's 2002 live reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Audio recording of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s 2002 live reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

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Vintage poster of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail

– Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “I Am Waiting”

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Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Billy Collins, Andrei Codrescu, Ron Padgett, Lucille Clifton, Mark Perlberg, Li-Young Lee, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Waldman, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Ted Kooser, Paul Carroll, Jorie Graham, and Paul Hoover.

Audio recording of the Poetry Center Reading Series featuring Billy Collins, Andrei Codrescu, Ron Padgett, Lucille Clifton, Mark Perlberg, Li-Young Lee, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Anne Waldman, Yusuf Komunyakaa, Lisel Mueller, Ted Kooser, Paul Carroll, Jorie Graham, and Paul Hoover.

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Listen to an interview with Lawrence Ferlinghetti:

More info on Lawrence Ferlinghetti⇒

Eshleman, Clayton 1983

Friday, March 18, 1983
Homage to Cesar Vallejo
The School of the Art Institute

Watching it get dark
the dog’s barking interrupted
we go to our death

– Clayton Eshleman, “February 25”

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Vintage poster of Clayton Eshleman's reading, Homage to Cesar Vallejo, at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Clayton Eshleman’s reading, Homage to Cesar Vallejo, at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Patters, paters, Apollo globes, sound
breaking up with silence, coals
I can still hear, entanglement of sense pools,
the way a cave might leak perfume–

– Clayton Eshleman, “Silence Raving”

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Watch an interview with Clayton Eshleman on OnePausePoetry:

Conversation with Clayton Eshleman

Conversation at One Pause Poetry with Clayton Eshleman

More info on Clayton Eshleman⇒

Elmslie, Kenward 1981

Friday, November 13, 1981

On the blackboard there comes the couple
Trudging along rusty railroad tracks in sneakers
On their way to the annual money crop square dance.

– Kenward Elmslie, “Alabama”

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Vintage poster of Poetry in Motion: a film by Ron Mann with Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, John Cage, Robert Creeley, Diane Di Prima, Kenward Elmslie, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Ed Sanders, Gary Snyder, Tom Waits, Anne Waldman at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Poetry in Motion: a film by Ron Mann with Amiri Baraka, Ted Berrigan, Charles Bukowski, William Burroughs, John Cage, Robert Creeley, Diane Di Prima, Kenward Elmslie, Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Ed Sanders, Gary Snyder, Tom Waits, Anne Waldman at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Watch a clip of Kenward Elmslie in Ron Mann’s documentary, “Poetry in Motion:”

Kenward Elmslie

a clip from Ron Mann’s documentary, Poetry in Motion (1981)

How to tell fringe people from yourself, himself, us, you, her?
They hunt for clean central beds full of lovers to deceive.
When they enter rooms, the most valuable still-life shatters.
They scream “Trap!”, deliberately trip (won’t get up, ever leave).

– Kenward Elmslie, “Fringe People”

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More info on Kenward Elmslie⇒

Edson, Russell 1976

Friday, May 14, 1976
with Charles Simic
The Poetry Center at the Museum of Contemporary Art

Let us consider the farmer who makes his straw hat his
sweetheart; or the old woman who makes a floor lamp her son;
or the young woman who has set herself the task of scraping
her shadow off a wall….

– Russell Edson, “Let Us Consider”

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Vintage poster of Russell Edson and Charles Simic giving a joint reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Russell Edson and Charles Simic giving a joint reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

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Out of the golden West, out of the leaden East, into the iron South, and to the silver North… Oh metals metals everywhere, forks and knives, belt buckles and hooks… When you are beaten you sing. You do not give anyone a chance…

– Russell Edson, “Metals Metals”

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Watch Russell Edson read his work:

Marshall Poet-in-Residence, with Russell Edson from ASU English on Vimeo.

More info on Russell Edson⇒