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Cage, John 1983; 1992

Sunday, September 25, 1983
Sunday, March 1, 1992

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There is no such thing as an empty space or an empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make a silence, we cannot.

– John Cage

Listen to John Cage’s 1992 Poetry Center reading:

 

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.

 

Read John Cage’s “Lecture on Nothing:”

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Check out this documentary about John Cage:

UbuWeb Film & Video: “American Masters” John Cage: I Have Nothing to Say and I Am Saying It

TV Series: “American Masters” (1983) Original Air Date: 17 September 1990 Country: UK 55 min John Cage On His Way With Sound By JOHN J. O’CONNOR New York Times Published: September 17, 1990 Perhaps the most striking thing about John Cage is his ability to reduce just about anyone in his vicinity to a gentle smile.

More info on John Cage⇒

Ryan, Michael 1989

Friday, October 13, 1989

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They slept and ate like us.
Feral they were not.
The intricacy of their handiwork
bespoke a fineness we’d be taught.

– Michael Ryan, “The Others”

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Read an interview with Michael Ryan from How A Poem Happens:

Michael Ryan

Michael Ryan’s Threats Instead of Trees won the 1973 Yale Series of Younger Poets Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award; In …

Wanting leads to worse than oddity.
The bones creak like bamboo in wind,
and strain toward a better life outside the body,
the life anything has that isn’t human.

– Michael Ryan, “Where I’ll Be Good”

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Watch Michael Ryan read his work at Poetry@Tech:

Poetry@Tech: Michael Ryan – Part 1

Poetry@Tech presents: Michael Ryan Fourth Annual Bourne Poetry Reading October 26, 2005 http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/index.php

More info on Michael Ryan⇒

Dobyns, Stephen 1988

Friday, February 26, 1988

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Ashes, the dissonance of unicorns: the edges
of my written name begin to curl, the ink
still visible through the fire. In absence of stars,
my natality card remains safely in Washington.

– Stephen Dobyns, “Name-Burning”

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Read this interview with Stephen Dobyns from The New Yorker:

Poetry Questions: Stephen Dobyns

This week, the magazine features “Determination,” by Stephen Dobyns. I had the chance to ask the author about the kindling and spark that fed this …

Groggy, sure, and in the midst of bad dreams,
it must have been a dispirited awakening–
expecting everything settled, the long night
without interruption suddenly interrupted,

– Stephen Dobyns, “The Mercy of Lazarus”

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Watch Stephen Dobyns read his work at Poetry@Tech:

Poetry@Tech: Stephen Dobyns

Stephen Dobyns October 27, 2011 http://www.poetry.gatech.edu/index.php Produced by the Georgia Tech Cable Network

More info on Stephen Dobyns⇒

Ignatow, David 1983

Friday, May 13, 1983

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Interesting that I have to live with my skeleton.
It stands, prepared to emerge, and I carry it
with me–this other thing I will become at death,
and yet it keeps me erect and limber in my walk,
my rival.

– David Ignatow, “My skeleton, my rival”

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Read this interview with David Ignatow from the Paris Review:

The Art of Poetry No. 23

Photograph by LaVerne Harrell Clark 02/17/1971 David Ignatow keeps an apartment in Queens close to York College where he teaches-four small rooms with bare walls. The windows of the living-room look out on a quaint cemetery dating back to the late 1700s. On its far side runs the BMT J…

I carry my keys like a weapon,
their points bunched together
and held outwards in the palm
for a step too close behind me
as I approach the subway through the
dark.

– David Ignatow, “To Nowhere”

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Listen to David Ignatow read his poem, “What about dying:”

David Ignatow reads What about dying

David Ignatow reads his poem What about dying.

More info on David Ignatow⇒

Segal, Lore 1982

Friday, September 24, 1982

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The doctors, nurses and patients in the overcrowded, too-brightly lit Emergency Room turned toward the commotion. It was the very old woman thrashing about her with improbable strength and agility. “You do not,” she shouted, “you do not tell me to relax! I will not relax.”

– Lore Segal, Half the Kingdom

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Read this interview with Lore Segal from BOMB Magazine:

http://bombmagazine.org/article/2900/lore-segal

Watch Lore Segal read and discuss her work:

Lore Segal begins speaking at 4:30 minutes. 

More info on Lore Segal⇒

Hayes, Alice Judson Ryerson 1981

Friday, December 18, 1981

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The president is walking in his sleep.
At the ends of his arms
air-flicking fingers thrum
dreaming of turning on a light.
Sleep, surrounded by switches
is iridescent in the Dark House.
His sleepy hand fumbles and reaches,
cheerful. Numb. Near.

– Alice Judson Ryerson Hayes, “Calling-People”

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Watch a video about Alice Judson Ryerson Hayes’s Ragdale Foundation:

Ragdale Presents: Alice Judson Ryerson Hayes – A Poet and A Place Become A Legacy

To our Artists: It will soon be 2016, the 40TH ANNIVERSARY of the Ragdale Foundation. Ragdale’s founder, Alice Hayes, envisioned a world that was inclusive, just, and filled with creative discovery. Alice’s Ragdale is that type of place and her good works continue to be recognized and celebrated.

The dilly silly court
on diases of raw silk
smirked at the dwarf
toddling. Oh, the milk
spilling down his chin!
Even the Imam laughed
as the eyes rolled
in the lolling head.

– Alice Judson Ryerson Hayes, “Jester”

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More info on Alice Judson Ryerson Hayes⇒

Rothenberg, Jerome 1980

Friday, May 16, 1980

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Time runs thru my fingers,
laughter & feathers
against her lips
when I bend to kiss her

– Jerome Rothenberg, “A Slower Music”

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Read this interview with Jerome Rothenberg from Rain Taxi:

Poet and Polemicist: an interview with Jerome Rothenberg

by Sarah SuzorPoet, translator, and polemicist Jerome Rothenberg is the author of more than 80 books of poetry, and has edited or co-edited ten major

the gauleiter & the rabbit
form another segment
of the dream     their motion thrusts them forward
until he drives his teeth into the other’s neck
purveyor of a custom so within the norm
the world will hardly recognize it

– Jerome Rothenberg, “The Gauleiter & The Rabbit (2)”

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Watch Jerome Rothenberg read some of his work:

Jerome Rothenberg ” Visions and Affiliations

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More info on Jerome Rothenberg⇒

Benedikt, Michael 1980

Friday, December 5, 1980

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The tulips never really hurt
As they rose up in the night
Thrashing over the bed

– Michael Benedikt, “Tulips”

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Read this NPR highlight on Michael Benedikt:

Wise, Funny Poems, Saved From The Trash Bin In The Nick Of ‘Time’

Michael Benedikt was an exemplary poet, a dedicated editor and an agoraphobic recluse. His work was almost lost forever – until two poets rescued his archive and published a selection, Time is a Toy.

Fraudulent days, the surfaces collapse
When against them you press your finger
The beautiful brick suit
When you scrape it is only a tinsel clothing
The whole upper stories of the building
Touched, is a seagull’s back, revealed

– Michael Benedikt, “Fraudulent Days”

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Duyn, Mona Van 1981

Friday, April 24, 1981

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Before you leave her, the woman who thought you lavish,
whose body you led to parade without a blush
the touching vulgarity of the nouveau-riche

– Mona Van Duyn, “Advice to a God”

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Read this article honoring Mona Van Duyn from the Beltway Poetry Quarterly:

Andrea Carter Brown on Mona Van Duyn

In the spring of 1992, the Library of Congress broke precedent, naming Mona Van Duyn its first female Poet Laureate.

From a new peony,
my last anthem,
a squirrel in glee
broke the budded stem.
I thought, where is joy
without fresh bloom,
that old hearts’ ploy
to mask the tomb?

– Mona Van Duyn, “Sonnet for Minimalists”

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Listen to Mona Van Duyn read some of her poetry:

More info on Mona Van Duyn ⇒

Strand, Mark 1982

Friday, April 2, 1982

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It is evening in the town of X
where Death, who used to love me, sits
in a limo with a blanket spread across his thighs.

– Mark Strand, “2032”

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Broadside of “2032” by Mark Strand

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Vintage poster of Mark Strand's reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Vintage poster of Mark Strand’s reading at the Poetry Center of Chicago.

Not the attendance of stones,
nor the applauding wind,
shall let you know
you have arrived,
nor the sea that celebrates
only departures,
nor the mountains,
nor the dying cities.

– Mark Strand, “Black Maps”

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Read this interview with Mark Strand from Guernica:

Mark Strand: Not Quite Invisible

Pultizer Prize-winner Mark Strand on falling in love, leaving the U.S., and the next chapter.

It shines in the garden,
in the white foliage of the chestnut tree,
in the brim of my father’s hat
as he walks on the gravel.

– Mark Strand, “The Garden”

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Watch Mark Strand talk about his work:


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