[Poetry reading, February 15, 1967] / John Wieners.

Recorded on February 15, 1967 on a 7 inch Scotch reel-to-reel tape.

This poetry reading by John Wieners was held on February 15, 1967. The location is unidentified, but believed to be in Buffalo, N.Y., perhaps at the University at Buffalo. Seven of the poems are uncollected and six are early versions. Wieners said that the early version of "For Huncke" "is to the guru of Times Square" and after reading the line "Exchange blood and be brothers for all time," which would be ommitted in later versions, Wieners said "I hate that word 'time' now." Wieners also said that "Clarification and wonders: spots in my eye" was "written after being up about three days," and that the poem beginning "As I put out my cigarette tonight in bed" "is not complete enough from Arshile Gorky's line 'How my mother's embroidered apron unfolds in my life.'" Wieners dedicated "Where'd our love go?" to Harvey Brown and said that "The suicide" is a poem for Sylvia Plath.

John Wieners.

The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries. Digital conversion was made possible through a 2009 National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

1967

Sound recording

PCR363

L'invitation au voyage II --first line of poem:[Hope your neighbors don't care] (uncollected) --first line of poem:[Oppression, war breeds famine, plague] (uncollected) --What happened? (early version) --first line of poem:[He will take me far beyond] (uncollected) --Billie (early version) --Clarification and wonders: spots in my eye (uncollected) --first line of poem:[As I put out my cigarette tonight in bed] (uncollected) --Unutterable (uncollected) --Ina O'Shea (early version) --Where'd our love go? (uncollected) --Poem (unidentified) --A poem for vipers --Sunset --For Huncke (early version) --Mermaid's song (early version) --first line of poem:[Let the heart's pain slack of] --The suicide (3. Address to the woman) --For Jan --Confession --Cocaine --Moon poems --The serpent's hiss --first line of poem:[The music loses] (early version) --first line of poem:[A lady plucks a lute above my head] --first line of poem:[I walk under the distant stars] --Perfect (uncollected) --A poem for the old man.

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