From the syntactically and sonically ecstatic sprung lyrics of Fits of Dawn to the yearning spirituality of Millennium Dust, Ceravalo’s amorously meditative, searching, migratory poems make a refreshing contribution to postwar American poetry’s pursuit of wild logos.
I want to backtrack a bit and link to some recordings related to earlier commentaries. Rather than update the older posts, I’ll periodically add new tracks to expand previous playlists. I’ll also make some new unthemed playlists of singles segmented from longer recordings that I came across while browsing PennSound’s reading series pages.
Additions and updates:
Listen to Prageeta Sharma read an epistolary excerpt from her book Bliss to Fill recorded at the Belladonna Series in 2000. Read about and hear other recordings related to letters in an earlier post, Dear Pennsound.
Listen to Sina Queryas read Numb is more natural, from her book Lemon Hound, at a 2006 Belladonna Series reading. Hear the entire reading. Read about and hear other recordings related to questions in the post, What is a question?
I’m always interested in the physical, digital, and in-between spaces audio recordings document and inhabit. This playlist samples some combinations of various recording environments, paying a bit of attention to often overlooked aspects such as tape hiss and telephone distortion, as well as considering sonic contexts like the classroom and direct-to-digital readings.
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: