The poetry wants to be free

February 1, 2005 3:06 PM

U Penn's Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing launches PennSound, an mp3 poetry library. Press release is here. Listen to sound files of single poems; read the manifesto; browse the author index; check out the webcast archive; and more (from the related Ubuweb).
posted by jokeefe (6 comments total)

Hey, there is a recording of one of my favorite poems here. Thank you!
posted by jessamyn at 3:41 PM on February 1, 2005

A few good poems and a lot of horrendous verse-vomit, but what else can be expected from the American toilet-bowl of malignant, state-sponsored poetics and identity politics. (I am listening as I write this; a poet just exclaimed, "I'm burning for him, bacon on a hot greasy grill".) But a worthwhile project and an interesting find anyway. Thanks for the link.
posted by ori at 3:43 PM on February 1, 2005

A few good poems and a lot of horrendous verse-vomit, but what else can be expected from the American toilet-bowl of malignant, state-sponsored poetics and identity politics. ... But a worthwhile project and an interesting find anyway. Thanks for the link.

Uh... you're welcome. I think.
posted by jokeefe at 3:58 PM on February 1, 2005

Wow, this is awesome. For some reason I never like a (modern) poet's work until I've heard the poet read it aloud. This should give me a great deal of new stuff to get into.

For anyone similarly inclined, this book and cd is a nice collection of famous ones.

And just for kicks, one of the best readings ever recorded, Frost 's "Fire and Ice" read by the author. Ridiculously inferior version here for contrast.
posted by ontic at 4:59 PM on February 1, 2005

O this is wonderful! Never mind the bollocks (way to look on the dark side, ori) -- this has Hugh MacDiarmid reading one of the great poems of the twentieth century (which includes in its folds some of the best translations from Russian ever done into English, since Scots is after all a form of English), A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (sloppy transcription, but it enables you to follow along), all four parts (well over an hour), something I've always wanted to hear read by the author in his own rough Scots.

I amna fou sae muckle as tired—deid dune.
It's gey and hard wark coupin gless for gless
Wi Cruivie and Gilsanquhar and the like,
And I'm no juist as bauld as aince I wes.

The elbuck fankles in the coorse o time,
The sheckle's no sae souple, and the thrapple
Grows deef and dour: nae langer up and doun
Gleg as a squirrel speils the Adam's apple.

Forbye, the stuffie's no the real Mackay.
The sun's sel aince, as sune as ye began it,
Riz in your vera saul: but what keeks in
Noo is in truth the vilest 'saxpenny planet'.

And as the worth's gane doun the cost has risen.
Yin canna thow the cockles o yin's hert
Wi-oot haen cauld feet noo, jalousin what
The wife'll say (I dinna blame her fur't).

It's robbin Peter to pey Paul at least....
And aa that's Scotch aboot it is the name,
Like aa thing else caad Scottish nooadays
—Aa destitute o speerit juist the same....

The first line means 'I'm not drunk so much as tired, completely done' and "gey and" means 'very'; the rest shouldn't be too hard to get from context. (Unfortunately the recording omits the first few words and starts with "deid dune," but after that it's complete.)

And there's Olson, and Oppen, and my man Ammiel Alcalay... O this is wonderful! A thousand thanks, jokeefe.
posted by languagehat at 7:23 PM on February 1, 2005

Cheers, LH. Hope the unpacking's going well.
posted by jokeefe at 9:19 PM on February 1, 2005