Ron Padgett, "Joe Brainard's Painting Bingo" & "The Austrian Maiden"
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Al Filreis brought together James Berger and Richard Deming (who traveled together from Yale) and Sophia DuRose to talk about two poems by Ron Padgett. The poems are “The Austrian Maiden” and “Joe Brainard’s Painting Bingo.” Our recording of “The Austrian Maiden” comes from a February 26, 2003, reading Padgett gave at the Kelly Writers House; the poem had just recently been published in Padgett’s book You Never Know (2002). The recording of “Joe Brainard’s Painting Bingo” — a poem published in Great Balls of Fire (1969) — was performed at a November 20, 1979, reading given at a location that is now (sadly) unknown. That reading in its entirety is available at Padgett’s PennSound page; the recording comes to us courtesy of the Maureen Owen Collection of Greenwich Village Poetry, now housed at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
April 17, 2024
Quiet is inevitable
Since moving back to Philadelphia after the hustle and bustle (and burnout) of New York, I have begun taking long walks. I mostly amble with no care or intention in my destination. Sometimes, I miss the bus. Sometimes, I am carrying huge brown paper bags of groceries with the handle partially ripped. Sometimes, I am carrying library books home. Sometimes, I leave a date or a friend. Often, I walk too fast and huff and get tired and stop and sit to get up and walk some more. I make a point to not listen to music or podcasts or talk on the phone. It has become a practice of familiarizing, a wandering that has helped reacquaint myself to the city I once knew.
In humanity, quiet is inevitable, essential. It is a simple beautiful part of what it means to be alive. It is already there, if one is looking to understand it. — Kevin Quashie[1]