Archive by Author

Chernoff, Maxine 2000

Wednesday, October 4, 2000
with Paul Hoover

Spring, we decided, was more
oppressive than winter with
its alyssum and clover
and the sheer weight of life
crowding us off the page.

– Maxine Chernoff, “Granted”

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Listen to Maxine Chernoff’s 2000 Poetry Center reading:

What the body might guess,
what the hand requests,
what language assumes
becomes amulet,
which is to say
I am carrying your face
in a locket in a box
to a virtual location
guarded by kestrels,

– Maxine Chernoff, “Scene”

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Watch Maxine Chernoff read her poetry:

Maxine Chernoff ” Omnidawn Publishing.m4v

City Lights} On Thurs Sept 22 11 Omnidawn Publishing presented readings by Cyrus Console, Donald Revell, Maxine Chernoff, and Elizabeth Robinson at City Lights Bookstore. Find more at http://litseen.com.

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Cheever, John 1975

Friday, May 2, 1975
An Evening with John Cheever
The Cathedral of St. James
Vintage poster of John Cheever's reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of John Cheever’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

The effect of the water on voices, the illusion of brilliance and suspense, was the same here as it had been at the Bunkers’ but the sounds here were louder, harsher, and more shrill, and as soon as he entered the crowded enclosure he was confronted with regimentation.

– John Cheever, “The Swimmer”

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Read this interview with John Cheever from the Paris Review:

The Art of Fiction No. 62

PHOTOGRAPH BY NANCY CRAMPTON The first meeting with John Cheever took place in the spring of 1969, just after his novel Bullet Park was published. Normally, Cheever leaves the country when a new book is released, but this time he had not, and as a result many interviewers on the E…

Listen to John Cheever reading “The Swimmer:”

SoundCloud – Hear the world’s sounds

Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio

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Castillo, Ana 1998; 2005

Wednesday, February 11, 1998
with Eugene Redmond
Monday, November 14, 2005
with Carlos Cumpián

Love me as you relish your loneliness,
the anticipation of your death,
mysteries of the flesh, as it tears and mends.

– Ana Castillo, “I Ask The Impossible”

Broadside of “I Ask The Impossible” by Ana Castillo

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Women don’t riot, not in maquilas in Malaysia, Mexico, or Korea,
not in sweatshops in New York or El Paso.
They don’t revolt
in kitchens, laundries, or nurseries.
Not by the hundreds or thousands, changing
sheets in hotels or in laundries
when scalded by hot water,
not in restaurants where they clean and clean
and clean their hands raw.

– Ana Castillo, “Women Don’t Riot”

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Listen to Ana Castillo’s 2005 reading for the Poetry Center of Chicago:

Remembering Revelation I wanted to laugh,
the way a nonbeliever remembers Sunday School
and laughs, which is to say–after flood and rains,
drought and despair,
abrupt invasions,
disease and famine everywhere,
we’re still left dumbfounded
at the persistence of fiction.

– Ana Castillo, “While I Was Gone A War Began”

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Listen to Ana Castillo reading her poetry:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kxci/.artsmain/article/14/218/1929065/KXCI.Public.Affairs/30.Minutes-.Ana.Castillo/

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Carroll, Paul 1986; 1992

Tuesday, June 3, 1986
Thursday, November 12, 1992
Founder of the Poetry Center of Chicago

Were you guys lucky, too, to caddy the light
of freshly-sprinkled fairway delicate and bright as eye of an
Indiana owl
or glitter of fish flickering in the Shedd Aquarium of the
imagination

– Paul Carroll, “Ode to an All-American Boyhood”

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Listen to Paul Carroll’s 1986 Poetry Center reading:

Our matchbox bedroom in the loft above your
sculpture factory
Turns magical at times
Behind its dark blue Druid door.     Last night,
Inside you, sweetheart,
It felt as if I were coming from the soul itself.

– Paul Carroll, “Valentine”

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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.

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My mouth is snow slowly caking that stiff pigeon.
My mouth, the intricately moist machinery of a plant.
I have forgotten if I ever had a mouth.

– Paul Carroll, “My Mouth Quick with Many Bees”

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Vintage poster of Bill Berkson, Ted Berrigan, Paul Carroll, Alice Notley, and Peter Kostakis givnig a poetry reading in honor of Frank O'Hara at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Bill Berkson, Ted Berrigan, Paul Carroll, Alice Notley, and Peter Kostakis givnig a poetry reading in honor of Frank O’Hara at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Watch an interview with Paul Carroll:

Conversation with Poet Paul Carroll Part 1 of 4

Uploaded by Bob Boldt on 2010-05-19.

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Burroughs, William 1975

Friday, March 14, 1975
with Allen Ginsberg
The Poetry Center at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Vintage poster of a joint reading by Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of a joint reading by Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

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Its so hard to remember in the world – –   Weren’t you there?        Dead so you
think of ports – – Couldn’t reach flesh – –       Might have to reach flesh from
anybody – – 

– William Burroughs, “Where Flesh Circulates”

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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.

my ice skates on a wall
lustre of stumps washes his lavender horizon
he’s got a handsome face of a lousy kid
rooming-houses dirty fingers
whistled in the shadow
“Wait for me at the detour.”

– William Burroughs, “Cold Lost Marbles”

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Watch this interview with William Burroughs from Magivanga Magazine:

Kathy Acker interviews William S. Burroughs – part 1/3

Uploaded by MagivangaMagazine23 on 2011-07-14.

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Brown, Garrett J. 2005

Poetry Center of Chicago 2005 Juried Reading Winner

After years of secret glances,
I knew it well – a cage of slanted
wires arranged on a Doric column
in my grandparents’ living room.

Garrett J. Brown, “Oil Lamp”

Broadside of “Oil Lamp” by Garrett J. Brown

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Spring cleaning in Baltimore always involved
a yellow bucket sloshing with soapy water
and a rag recognized as the tattered remains
of my father’s bowling shirt, circa 1973.

– Garrett J. Brown, “Lost Anecdote From The Pages Of Vasari”

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Read this article about Garrett J. Brown from The Dundalk Eagle:

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Receding hairline, your rented room
in the wooded hills beyond light
pollution and suburbia, your penchant
for slender women with large eyes
and small breasts, talent for language

– Garrett J. Brown, “Constellation”

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Brown, Rosellen 2005

Wednesday, March 2, 2005
with Calvin Forbes

Talk and you wonder if that could be a voice.
And you lie lightly, skimming the cream
of sleep off the top of an endless night. 

Rosellen Brown, “In Rooms”

Broadside of “In Rooms” by Rosellen Brown

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Read this interview with Rosellen Brown from TriQuarterly:

http://www.triquarterly.org/interviews/rosellen-brown-interview

He said, “We do not love by word alone,”
And pulled the silence down around his voice
As though a sound could hurt him. Since those words
Became their own perverse, inviting promise,
She had to smile: “Then what is left to say
That you will listen to, except a kiss?”

– Rosellen Brown, “Sestina for Three Voices”

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Watch this interview with Rosellen Brown from the Atlantic Center for the Arts:

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Borsuk, Amaranth 2013

Saturday, April 13, 2013

You’re nothing but a bad pomme,
grainy fruit (not pome), a globose
berry from which we’ve garnered
garnets, grange, gram, and grenadine.

– Amaranth Borsuk, “Pomegranate: Rimon’s Rhyme”

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Read this interview with Amaranth Borsuk from iO Poetry:

FIRST BOOK INTERVIEW: AMARANTH BORSUK

Handiwork , By Amaranth Borsuk, Slope Editions 2012 1. Tell us about the title, Handiwork. Where did it come, what does it mean to you, or how did you decide on it?

Your task is to gamble on limited
light and space and face the
meadow, alkali mallow, let light
lick your basal rosette and bloom
bottle thistle through your bearded
creeper.

– Amaranth Borsuk, “Wood Nexuses I”

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Amaranth Borsuk on “What ‘bookness’ really is in the age of page and screen”

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Brooks, Gwendolyn 1977

Friday, May 27, 1977
with Etheridge Knight
The Poetry Center at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Vintage poster of a joint reading by Gwendolyn Brooks and Etheridge Knight at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of a joint reading by Gwendolyn Brooks and Etheridge Knight at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

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Already I am no longer looked at with lechery or love.
My daughters and sons have put me away with marbles and dolls,
Are gone from the house.
My husband and lovers are pleasant or somewhat polite
And night is night.

– Gwendolyn Brooks, “A Sunset of the City”

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Read this interview with Gwendolyn Brooks from Modern American Poetry:

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/brooks/interviews.htm

Of people: These
are all soft animals.
Not one is made of steel.

That
is what he thought.
He felt that they would feel.
If not next day, next Monday.
And he smiled.

– Gwendolyn Brooks, “Henry Rago”

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Watch an interview with Gwendolyn Brooks:

More info on Gwendolyn Brooks⇒

Brodsky, Joseph (Josip) 1975

Friday, February 21, 1975
Slavic Poetry
with Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Djordje Nikolic, and John Rezek

Where a tin of halvah, coffee-flavored,
is the cause of a human assault-wave
by a crowd heavy-laden with parcels:
each one his own king, his own camel.

– Joseph Brodsky, “December 24, 1971” 

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Vintage poster of Slavic Poetry, featuring Josip Brodsky, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Djordje Nikolic, and John Rezek at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Slavic Poetry, featuring Joseph Brodsky, Tymoteusz Karpowicz, Djordje Nikolic, and John Rezek at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

The Wise Men will unlearn your name.
Above your head no star will flame.
One weary sound will be the same–
the hoarse roar of the gale.
The shadows fall from your tired eyes
as your lone bedside candle dies,
for here the calendar breeds nights
till stores of candles fail.

– Joseph Brodsky, “1 January 1965”

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Read this interview with Joseph Brodsky from the Paris Review:

The Art of Poetry No. 28

Joseph Brodsky, ca. 1988. Photograph by Anefo/Croes, R.C. Joseph Brodsky was interviewed in his Greenwich Village apartment in December, 1979. He was unshaven and looked harried. He was in the midst of correcting the galley proofs for his book-A Part of Speech-and he said that he had al…

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