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Jack Spicer


PoemTalk #28, Discussing Spicer's "Psychoanalysis: An Elegy"

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Kevin Killian Reads Jack Spicer, 1991

  • Reading Imaginary Elegy 1 on June 7, 1991 (2:39): MP3
  • Reading Imaginary Elegy 2 on June 7, 1991 (3:29): MP3

The Holy Grail, July 15, 1965

  1. Introduction (2:15): MP3
  2. Jack Spicer's Remarks (0:37): MP3
  3. The Book of Gawain (6:37): MP3
  4. The Book of Percival (6:18): MP3
  5. The Book of Lancelot (5:44): MP3
  6. The Book of Gwenivere (6:38): MP3
  7. Applause (0:23): MP3
  8. The Book of Merlin (7:19): MP3
  9. The Book of Galahad (6:31): MP3
  10. The Book of The Death of Arthur (7:11): MP3
Complete reading (49:36): MP3

Poetry and Politics Lecture for the Berkeley Poetry Conference at the University of California, Berkeley, July 4, 1965

Complete recording (38:15): MP3

Recording from the Ben Tripp Tapes (1:17:45): MP3

Vancouver Lectures

June 13, 1965:
Lecture 1, part 1 (1:24:18): MP3, RealAudio
Lecture 1, part 2 (1:14:00): MP3, RealAudio

June 15, 1965:
Lecture 2, part 1 (1:26:11): MP3, RealAudio
Lecture 2, part 2 - second half of this section to come (44:16): MP3, RealAudio
[excerpt on Wallace Stevens's serial poems (3:27): MP3]

June 17, 1965:
Lecture 3, part 1 (1:27:06): MP3, RealAudio
Lecture 3, part 2 (29:00): MP3, RealAudio

Peter Gizzi's edited and annotated transcription of these lectures, The House that Jack Built, was published by Wesleyan University Press, 1998.
This electronic edition of the lectures is presented in cooperation with Peter Gizzi and Robin Blaser, for the Estate of Jack Spicer.

Spicer reads Language in its entirety — Vancouver, June 1965

  1. Thing Language (14:10): MP3
  2. Love Poems (7:30): MP3
  3. Intermissions (2:35): MP3
  4. Transformations (2:51): MP3
  5. Morphemics (3:27): MP3
  6. Phonemics (5:46): MP3
  7. Graphemics (8:45): MP3
Recording courtesy of the Robert Creeley estate.

Jack Spicer speaks and reads from Language (full work)

The second of two shows edited by Mark Weiss in 1975. Based on recordings from the Spicer estate. [The opening comments are from the 4th Lecture on Poetry & Politics at the Berkeley Conference on July 14th 1965. - P.Gizzi]

Complete program (58:03): MP3

Spicer reads Language (44:43): MP3

(Note this replaces the mp3 and ra "WBAI" mp3 we had previously made available)

From Book of Magazine Verse, 1965

Complete recording (20:25): MP3 , RealAudio

Jack Spicer in Vancouver, from the Ben Tripp Tapes, 1963

  • Part 1, Side A (47:39): MP3
  • Part 1, Side B (48:05): MP3
  • Part 2, Side A (47:43): MP3
  • Part 2, Side B (47:20): MP3
  • Part 3, Side A (47:32): MP3
  • Part 3, Side B (3:54): MP3

From Exact Change 8: "Imaginary Elegies," April 11, 1957

Complete recording (11:10): MP3

Reading “One Night Stand”, from the Ben Tripp Tapes, c. 1957

Complete recording (42:19): MP3

Spicer reads three early poems

"The Song of the Bird in the Loins" (1:08): MP3 [Collected Poetry, p. 62]
"The Dancing Ape" (0:51): MP3 [CP, p. 25]:
"Psychoanalysis: An Elegy" (2:54): MP3 [CP, p. 31]
Complete reading (4:52): MP3; RealAudio

"Psychoanalysis: An Elegy" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 28.

Reading from "Billy the Kid" and "The Holy Grail", Date and Location Unknown

  • Complete recording (21:44): MP3

Recording from the Maureen Owen Collection of Greenwich Village Poetry, at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Jack Spicer on PennSound Daily

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the estate of the author. © 2004-2010 the Estate of Jack Spicer. Used with permission of the Estate of Jack Spicer. Distributed by PennSound.