Kaufman and Stevens on improvisation

Jake Marmer and I, on the road (as it were) in San Francisco, conversed somewhat randomly on Bob Kaufman’s “CROOTEY SONGO” and Wallace Stevens’s “The Man with the Blue Guitar.” How could these two poems connect? Maybe they don’t but we gave it a try. To hear a reading of Kaufman's poem, skip forward in the video to 25:19.

Bob Kaufman’s “CROOTEY SONGO”: LINK TO TEXT

Wallace Stevens’s “The Man with the Blue Guitar” (excerpts): LINK TO TEXT