Bernadette Mayer

Day

              The nights let us have leaves

 

                       we have them           the leaves have let us

 

"The sun's in my eyes …"

                                            The

 

               Sun’s  in  my  eyes  and

 

Split Decision

My partner and I were hunting cougars in

Colorado’s Book Cliffs. Our hounds treed

a cat at dusk, but some were baying near

a cave. I leaned into cave and struck match

right in face of a bear. Though supposedly

hibernating, big bear and her cub were not.

Big one walloped me, nearly breaking my

The General

Later in secret

Later in secret the general

Bends to remove something

To lean against a fresco.

The rules which run

Around the walls

The walls of court

Determine a course,

Declare if he had not:

 

Auditoriums

To range in the war was corruption, an error, a snow.

            A snow over Rome. Near the garage to sew and to

            sing — a crystal, inherent, and a wink to the

            chevalier.

To range in the Roman manner was to manage it raw.

A day like any other (PoemTalk #85)

James Schuyler, 'February'

From left: Erica Kaufman, Bernadette Mayer, Al Filreis, and Julia Bloch during a live interactive webcast that preceded this PoemTalk session by a few hours.

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Bernadette Mayer, Julia Bloch, and erica kaufman joined Al Filreis to discuss James Schuyler’s poem “February.” Schuyler read the poem at the Dia Art Foundation in New York on November 15, 1988. John Ashbery gave the introduction, emphasizing how reluctant Schuyler was to read in public. He noted: “As far as I know, this is the first public [reading] he has ever given.” One can tell from the tone of Ashbery’s remarks that he felt that he and the audience were in for a rare treat, a savoring for which years of waiting were worthwhile.

Mayer and Good

From left to right: erica kaufman, Julia Bloch, Bernadette Mayer, and Philip Good — at the Kelly Writers House, October 21, 2014, on a day when Mayer participated in a live webcast conversation with participants in the free, open online course called ModPo, recorded a session of PoemTalk on “February” by James Schuyler, and gave a reading with Philip Good. The recording of the webcast discussion is available here. The recording of the Mayer/Good reading is available here. The events are fully described here.

Hannah Weiner, Joseph Ceravolo, and Bernadette Mayer from Tape Poems, ed. Eduardo Costa and John Perreault (1969)

One of the many treasures at UbuWeb is an MP3 of this pioneering 4-track audio magazine. I've pulled singles of three of the contributions:

Hannah Weinier: 3 Poems: (5:43): MP3

Bernadette Mayer: Complete Music of Webern, A Movie (4:56): MP3

Joseph Ceravolo: Poems and Background (2:46): MP3

Thanks to Patrick Durgin, whose research on Hannah Weiner led me to this recording. 

Ubu gives the presecient liner notes:

Tired, poor, huddled, gentrified (PoemTalk #58)

Bernadette Mayer, "The Tragic Condition of the Statue of Liberty"

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Most of us who have read Bernadette Mayer's poem, “The Tragic Condition of the Statue of Liberty,” encountered it in Andrei Codrescu's anthology American Poetry since 1970: Up Late (1987), where it was joined by her “Laundry & School Epigrams” (written in the same spirit) and eight of her other poems. PennSound’s recording of “The Tragic Condition” comes from an Ear Inn reading that took place in October of 1988. 

For this episode of PoemTalk, Al Filreis convened Anne Waldman, Julia Bloch, and Katie Price to talk about this poem and Mayer’s approach to tragic conditions generally.

Tired, poor, huddled, gentrified (PoemTalk #58)

Bernadette Mayer, 'The Tragic Condition of the Statue of Liberty'

Bernadette Mayer, Emma Lazarus, Lady Liberty

LISTEN TO THE SHOW

Most of us who have read Bernadette Mayer's poem, “The Tragic Condition of the Statue of Liberty,” encountered it in Andrei Codrescu's anthology American Poetry since 1970: Up Late (1987), where it was joined by her “Laundry & School Epigrams” (written in the same spirit) and eight of her other poems. PennSound’s recording of “The Tragic Condition” comes from an Ear Inn reading that took place in October of 1988. 

For this episode of PoemTalk, Al Filreis convened Anne Waldman, Julia Bloch, and Katie Price to talk about this poem and Mayer’s approach to tragic conditions generally. <--break- />

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