Mégapneume

Gil J. Wolman – La Memoire (3’17”). “It’s the breath that creates the poem: rhythm and scream, the scream until now inexpressed in poetry; scream of joy, of love, of anguish, of horror, of hate, but scream” (Dufrêne). “Less texts than sonic performances the ultralettristic poems comprise a high-energy expulsion of inarticulate sounds, cries, and grunts. In linguistic parlance ulltralettristic performance emancipates non- and subphonomatic material from the necessity of primary articulation” (McCaffery). More Wolman on Ubuweb.

A Terrible Wholeness

Amiri Baraka – I Love Music (2’15”). Recorded on reel-to-reel by Robert Creeley on December 8, 1978 in Buffalo. Background on event. More Baraka on Pennsound. “The poem ‘I Love Music’ was written to recall when I was locked up in solitary confinement after the Newark rebellions in 1967. I sat one afternoon and whistled all the Trane I remembered. And then later that afternoon they told me he had died. But I knew even then that that was impossible” (from Baraka’s liner notes to The Last Giant, cited here).

Back to books

Clark Coolidge – To Begin With (1’00). Recorded by Aldon Nielsen at the Colby Museum of Art on June 14, 2008. Coolidge read with Bernadette Mayer as part of the NPF Conference on the Poetry of the 1970s. Lipstick of Noise tracklist. Earlier entries here.

Self Portrait with Internet

Stephanie Young – opening section of Betty Page We Love You Get Up (02’09). Full (slightly variant) text at Eoagh. Full reading on A Voice Box. Lipstick of Noise tracklist. Earlier entries here.