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Bill Berkson

Recorded at the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, UPenn, April 3, 2013

  1. Business (0:41): MP3
  2. Rendition (0:38): MP3
  3. Without Penalty (0:51): MP3
  4. A Lady at Her Writing Table (0:54): MP3
  5. Heine Song (0:44): MP3
  6. Landscape with Calm (1:33): MP3
  7. As if You Didn't Know (2:10): MP3
  8. For the Heart of the Second Floor (1:54): MP3
  9. Costanza (5:25): MP3
  10. Poetry and Sleep (0:26): MP3
  11. Exogeny (0:31): MP3
  12. Lady Air (0:37): MP3
  13. Omar Little (0:37): MP3
  14. Dress Trope (0:29): MP3
  15. Last Lines with George (1:03): MP3
  16. Slow Swirl at the Edge of the Sea (1:16): MP3
  17. The Prophet (2:37): MP3
  18. With Impunity (0:50): MP3
  19. Anhedonia (2:01): MP3
  20. Reprise (0:48): MP3

Complete Reading (26:03): MP3

On the Joe Milford Radio Show, Georgia, May 7, 2011

  • complete recording (1:29:22): MP3

Collaboration & the Artist’s Book: Vincent Katz, Bill Berkson, Shirley Jaffé, Raphael Rubinstein, Susan Bee & Charles Bernstein, Poetry reading and visual art projection, Maison de la poésie, Paris, April 2, 2011



Reading at the Kelly Writers House, March 15, 2007

  1. Introduction (4:36): MP3
  2. Tiffany's Song (0:45): MP3
  3. Salad Spinner (0:37): MP3
  4. Philip Whalen (0:19): MP3
  5. Our Friends Will Pass Among You Silently (1:22): MP3
  6. "Intentionality . . ." (0:20): MP3
  7. AKA The Pantheon is Flooded (1:09): MP3
  8. Poem Beginning With A Remark From Richard Tuttle (3:05): MP3
  9. What's Your Idea Of A Good Time? (commentary and readings) (10:54): MP3
  10. Melting Milk (1:07): MP3
  11. By Halves (0:51): MP3
  12. The Reader's Lover (5 Poems) (1:03): MP3
  13. Baby's Awake Now (0:48): MP3
  14. Duchamp Dream (1:26): MP3
  15. October (1:53): MP3
  16. Out There (for Jasper Johns) (0:52): MP3
  17. Gloria (0:21): MP3
  18. Extreme Patience (0:26): MP3
  19. Merit (0:35): MP3
  20. Plot (0:08): MP3
  21. After the Medusa (0:42): MP3
  22. Tango (1:19): MP3
  23. Song for Connie (0:55): MP3

Complete Reading (1:04:02): MP3

Interviewed by Carlos Villa, KUSF, San Francisco, September 4, 2004

  1. introduction (1:08): MP3
  2. Domino (0:46): MP3
  3. Poem (0:40): MP3
  4. Fourth Street, San Rafael (1:11): MP3
  5. A Finial (0:42): MP3
  6. Clerical Workers (1:00): MP3
  7. Signature Song (1:47): MP3 [text]
  8. on the interchange between writing and the present (3:18): MP3
  9. on "Signature Song" (0:58): MP3
  10. on De Kooning, the "slipping glimpser" and attitude (3:57): MP3
  11. on New York and Evergreen Review (3:07): MP3
  12. on Fairfield Porter and Alex Katz (9:44): MP3
  13. on The Sweet Singer of Modernism (0:57): MP3
  14. A New York Beginner (3:34): MP3
  15. on deteriorating Pollock and Kline paintings (1:43): MP3
  16. on Bay Area arts (10:02): MP3
  17. on poetry's place in contemporary culture (3:38): MP3
  18. on being diagnosed with emphysema (10:04): MP3
  • part one (28:55): MP3
  • part two (29:06): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, October 19, 2002

  1. Introduction (2:36): MP3
  2. Red Devil (2:13): MP3
  3. After 99 Comes 100 (1:16): MP3
  4. No Claim to the Puzzle (0:57): MP3
  5. Song Heard Around St. Bridget's (1:25): MP3
  6. St. Bridget's Adieu (0:22): MP3
  7. A Head at the Covers (1:22): MP3
  8. The Obvious Tradition (1:35): MP3
  9. Signature Song (1:54): MP3 [TEXT]
  10. Purgatory (0:26): MP3
  11. Stains of Stalin (1:07): MP3
  12. The Recital (0:55): MP3
  13. La Poesie Blanche (0:39): MP3
  14. from "25 Grand View" (4:16): MP3
  15. A Lady at Her Writing Table (0:21): MP3
  16. After the Medusa (0:29): MP3
  17. Within the Silly Sheets (0:17): MP3
  18. Reimagined Episode (0:14): MP3
  19. Friends (0:19): MP3
  20. Extreme Patience (0:28): MP3
  21. The Shadow on the Page (0:23): MP3
  22. An Unmentionable Painting (0:27): MP3
  23. Tango (1:32): MP3
  24. Gloria (0:53): MP3

Complete Reading (35:50): MP3

Reading with Stephen Ratcliffe and Lyn Hejinian, Bolinas, 1987

  • complete recording (47:27): MP3

Berkson Reading:

  1. Opening Comments (0:58): MP3
  2. "In an instant the world seems fairly made of wood" (1:56): MP3
  3. The Head of the Covers (1:35): MP3
  4. A Hand Not My Own (1:07): MP3
  5. Chasing the Slip (1:33): MP3
  6. Andate (2:40): MP3
  7. (unclear title) (1:25): MP3

Complete reading (11:51): MP3

Reading, February 17, 1983 (Location Unknown)

  1. introduction (1:56): MP3
  2. You Sure Do Some Nice Things (0:34): MP3
  3. Fourth Street, San Rafael (1:17): MP3
  4. Baby's Awake Now (1:06): MP3
  5. Slow Curve, Hampton Road (0:28): MP3
  6. Burkhart's Ninth (1:00): MP3
  7. Source, To Philip Guston (1:14): MP3
  8. Ocean and Grove (0:46): MP3
  9. Stopping is Nothing (0:42): MP3
  10. From Whence it Came (0:25): MP3
  11. Red Devil (2:10): MP3
  12. A Fixture (0:52): MP3
  13. If I Pray to Anyone it is You (0:58): MP3
  14. from Young Manhattan (0:48): MP3
  15. Hoo Book (2:15): MP3
  16. Incent (1:16): MP3
  17. Chaloff (2:32): MP3
  18. Missing (2:57): MP3
  19. Missing II (1:55): MP3
  20. On the High Window (0:40): MP3
  21. Ode, I (2:14): MP3
  22. Ode, II (2:07): MP3
  23. The Position (2:07): MP3
  24. First Turns (1:13): MP3
  25. End of Century Thrush (1:32): MP3
  26. Thumos (0:38): MP3
  27. Poem (How Can Equivocation Happen...) (0:34): MP3
  28. Annus Mirabilis (0:31): MP3
  29. After 99 Comes 100 (1:32): MP3
  • complete reading (39:55): MP3

(recording courtesy of Ron Silliman)

Appearing on In the American Tree, hosted by Alan Bernheimer, September 7, 1979

  1. Introduction (0:34): MP3
  2. Roots (2:14): MP3
  3. Booster (1:46): MP3
  4. Algebra (from Young Manhattan) (2:53): MP3
  5. Fourth Street (4:23): MP3
  6. Duchamp Dream (2:40): MP3
  7. Camera Ready Like a Dream (3:10): MP3
  8. Poem (3:44): MP3
  9. Source (3:43): MP3
  10. Basis (1:00): MP3
  11. To Marie Cosindas (0:59): MP3
  12. Two Days (1:11): MP3

Complete Recording (28:10): MP3

Talk on "Talking," Given at 80 Langton, April 27, 1978

  • Part One (47:10): MP3
  • Part Two (47:28): MP3
  • Recording Courtesy of Bob Perelman

Reading with Joe Brainard at Intersection, San Francisco, June 15, 1971

The Berkson/Brainard reading here.

From The World Record: Readings at the St. Mark's Poetry Project, 1969-1980

Blue is the Hero (1:46): MP3

Also of Interest:

Bill Berkson on PennSound Daily

These recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2008 Bill Berkson. Used with permission of Bill Berkson. Distributed by PennSound.