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Carl Rakosi

PoemTalk #82, Discussing Carl Rakosi's “In What Sense I Am I,” feat. Anthony Madrid, Laura Goldstein, and Don Share on October 27, 2014

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2

Footage shot by Nathaniel Dorsky at the Arboretum of Golden Gate Park c. 2003


Click on the still above to view the film.

Footage shot by Nathaniel Dorsky at the Arboretum of Golden Gate Park, a few blocks from where the poet lived in the Sunset District of San Francisco. It is shot on 16mm Kodachrome. With Rakosi is his companion, Marilyn Kane.

99th Birthday Celebration at the Kelly Writers House, October 30, 2002

  1. Love America, Uncle Sam Needs You (1:58): MP3
  2. Go Preach Christ (1:12): MP3
  3. The Country Singer (0:53): MP3
  4. Captain Paterson (2:59): MP3
  5. from Three Cheers for the Star Spangled Banner: A Silent Movie (1:19): MP3
  6. How to be with a Rock (2:34): MP3
  7. Oh Sestina (2:27): MP3
  8. from The Old Poet's Tale (4:09): MP3
  9. To a Collie Pup (1:31): MP3
  10. In What Sense I Am I (2:17): MP3 [ text ]

"In What Sense I Am I" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 82.

Complete reading and discussion (1:18:47): MP3

Excerpted from that discussion: Rakosi on writing communist poetry in the 1930s: MP3

for more information on this reading, please click here to visit the event's page on the Kelly Writers House website.

Summer Writing Program, Naropa, June 17, 1998

(with Mike Heller, Jenny Penberthy, and Rachel Blau DuPlessis)

Part 1: Panel on the Objectivist poets (1:42:15): MP3
Part 2: Complete discussion (1:32:50): MP3 (note: recording is of extremely poor quality)

Special thanks to Rachel Blau DuPlessis for making these recordings available.

Reading in the Mumford Room at the Library of Congress, April 11, 1996

Complete recording (1:08:56); MP3

  1. Introduction by Robert Haas (11:10): MP3
  2. Lying in Bed on a Summer Morning (2:40): MP3
  3. The Glass of Madeira (3:38): MP3
  4. Evening with my Granddaughters (0:18): MP3
  5. Questions for Jennifer Ebin (1:27): MP3
  6. Young Couples Strolling By (0:35): MP3
  7. Ode to a Nightingale (1:13): MP3
  8. Get Up You Old Dog (1:10): MP3
  9. Shakespearean Street (1:14): MP3
  10. Down to Earth Suite 1 (1:00): MP3
  11. Down to Earth Suite 2 (0:46): MP3
  12. Down to Earth Suite 3 (0:41): MP3
  13. Down to Earth Suite 4 (0:08): MP3
  14. Manhattan 1975 (6:50): MP3
  15. American Nymphs (3:20): MP3
  16. Country Epitaphs (2:00): MP3
  17. The Old Poet's Tale (17:45): MP3
  18. Meditation / Theologian (1:39): MP3
  19. Ballad of the Diminished I (3:21): MP3

Recording courtesy of Library of Congress

Reading in the Recording Laboratory at the Library of Congress, May 4, 1976

"Mr. Rakosi reads four poems from his collection entitled Amulet; seven from Ere-voice; and nine from Ex-cranium, night." - Library of Congress Catalog

Complete recording (46:23); MP3

  1. Americana 1 (0:39): MP3
  2. Americana 2 (1:01): MP3
  3. Old Hickory (0:12): MP3
  4. OK (3:45): MP3
  5. Americana 11: Strictly Iowa (0:36): MP3
  6. Americana 19: Item (0:36): MP3
  7. Americana 4 (3:10): MP3
  8. Americana 5 (1:48): MP3
  9. Americana 28 (0:42): MP3
  10. The Experiment with a Rat (0:42): MP3
  11. Americana 23 (0:29): MP3
  12. Americana 12 (2:25): MP3
  13. New Orleans Transient Bureau (4:08): MP3
  14. The Poet and The Depression (1:32): MP3
  15. The Depression Dream (5:25): MP3
  16. Fiddling Around (3:51): MP3
  17. When He Sat Down to His Desk (1:34): MP3
  18. The China Policy (1:24): MP3
  19. Associations with a View from the House (1:38): MP3
  20. (0:48): MP3

Recording courtesy of Library of Congress