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Vancouver 1963 Poetry Conference

The (so-called) Vancouver Poetry Confernence took place in 1963, organizaed chiefly by Warren Tallman with Robert Creeley. Conference participants included Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Creeely, Denise Levertov, Allen Ginsberg, Margaret Avison, and Philip Whalen. Conference is a misnomer: this was actually a three-week summer session credit course at the University of Britsh Columbia.

Many of these recordings were made by Fred Wah and are made available here with his permission as well as the permission of the poets or their estates; other recordings come from the archives of Robert Creeley and Charles Olson. Wah originally prepared his recordings for the Slought Foundation, working with Aaron Levy on this project. We are grateful to Wah, Levy, Creeley, and Slought for helping to preserve this archive. Charles Bernstein discusses the conference in an interview with Robert McTavish, who made a film on the event, The Line Has Shattered in TCR.

7/24/63: Morning discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Allen Ginsberg

  1. Part 1 (1:06:53): MP3
  2. Part 2 (14:19): MP3

7/24/63: Evening discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg

  1. Part 1 (1:05:16): MP3
  2. Part 2 (34:26): MP3

7/26/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg

  1. Part 1 (32:08): MP3
  2. Part 2 (1:06:11): MP3
  3. Part 3 (15:15): MP3

7/26/63: Reading: Robert Duncan

  1. The Question (3:01): MP3
  2. Structure of Rime 9 (2:11): MP3
  3. Structure of Rime 10 (1:41): MP3
  4. Structure of Rime 11 (1:31): MP3
  5. Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal (2:15): MP3
  6. Apprehensions (17:35): MP3
  7. Come Let Me Free Myself (1:39): MP3
  8. Risk (4:44): MP3
  9. Structure of Rime: "Back to the figure..." (4:34): MP3
  10. Osiris and Set (4:31):MP3
  11. Two Presentations (5:46): MP3
  12. A Song of the Old Order (4:04): MP3
  13. Witch's Song (from Faust Foutu: A Comic Masque) (3:26): MP3
  14. Opening: On A Set of Romantic Hymns - To Michael McClure and Percy Bysshe Shelley (1:28): MP3
  15. A Set of Romantic Hymns (8:38): MP3
  16. Sonnet 1(2:53): MP3
  17. Sonnet 2 (0:57): MP3
  18. Sonnet 3, from Dante's Sixth Sonnet (0:53): MP3
  19. Sonnet 4 (1:34): MP3
  20. Opening: On the Pindar poem and Apprehensions (1:16): MP3
  21. Witch's Song from Faust Foutu (repeated) (2:16): MP3
  22. A Poem Beginning with a Line from Pindar (12:12): MP3

complete reading (1:34:05): MP3

7/29/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Olson, Philip Whalen

  1. Part 1 (1:05:42): MP3
  2. Part 2 (1:05:51): MP3

7/31/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Olson

  1. Part 1 (1:06:07): MP3
  2. Part 2 (1:03:57): MP3

7/31/63: Reading: Allen Ginsberg

  1. Early Poems (5:07): MP3
  2. Marijuana Notation (1:03): MP3
  3. The Brick Layers' Lunch Hour (1:30): MP3
  4. How Come He Got Canned at the Ribbon Factory (2:25): MP3
  5. Discussion of How Come He Got Canned at the Ribbon Factory (3:25): MP3
  6. The Archetype Poem (1:56): MP3
  7. Finally (0:43): MP3
  8. My Alba (1:10): MP3
  9. The Green Automobile (6:46): MP3
  10. Love Poem on a Theme by Whitman (1:52): MP3
  11. Song (2:44): MP3
  12. Fragment 1956 (2:28): MP3
  13. Howl (excerpt) (1:53): MP3
  14. Transcription of Organ Music (5:01): MP3
  15. Sunflower Sutra (5:28): MP3
  16. In the Baggage Room at Greyhound (5:33): MP3
  17. A Strange New Cottage in Berkeley (1:23): MP3
  18. Psalm III (1:12): MP3
  19. Tears (0:43): MP3
  20. Back on Times Square, Dreaming of Times Square (1:46): MP3
  21. My Sad Self (3:23): MP3
  22. To an Old Poet in Peru (3:51): MP3
  23. Kaddish (excerpt) (16:45): MP3

complete reading (1:19:48): MP3

7/31/63: Reading: Philip Whalen

  1. To the Muse (2:22): MP3
  2. To the Moon (0:20): MP3
  3. Dream & Excursus, Arlington Massachusetts (2:34): MP3
  4. The Daydream (0:43):MP3
  5. One of My Favorite Songs is Stormy Weather (1:11): MP3
  6. What I Want (0:40): MP3
  7. Statement of Condition (0:58): MP3
  8. Early Autumn in Upper Noe Valley (1:20): MP3
  9. How Beautiful (0:44): MP3
  10. Daily Bread (0:48): MP3
  11. Life and Death and a Letter to My Mother Beyond Them Both (7:38): MP3
  12. Friday Already Half- (2:16): MP3
  13. Tennis Shoes (1:38): MP3
  14. Invocation and Theophany (2:50): MP3
  15. Letter to Michael McClure (4:17): MP3
  16. "A Wednesday Morning" (0:38): MP3
  17. Plums, Metaphysics, an Investigation, a Visit, and a Short Funeral Ode (5:07): MP3
  18. Saturday Morning (0:40): MP3
  19. The Treasures of Rage (0:50):MP3
  20. The Idol (0:49):MP3
  21. Warnings, Responses, Etc. (2:51): MP3
  22. An Irregular Ode (0:35): MP3
  23. Song for 2 Balalaikas on the Corner of 3rd & Market (0:35):MP3
  24. The Art of Literature (3:30): MP3
  25. "This Boy At Princeton Studied Russian" (4:51): MP3
  26. To a Poet (0:13): MP3
  27. A Vision of the Bodhisattvas (0:56): MP3
  28. To the Muse (1:08): MP3
  29. "Monday, In the Evening" (11:26): MP3

complete reading (1:12:45): MP3

8/2/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Olson

  1. Part 1 (52:01): MP3
  2. Part 2 (45:32): MP3

8/5/63: Lecture by Robert Duncan

  1. Part 1 (1:38:00): MP3
  2. Part 2 (24:37): MP3

8/7/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Margaret Avison, Denise Levertov

  1. Part 1 (23:49): MP3
  2. Part 2 (53:46): MP3

8/7/63: Reading: Margaret Avison

complete reading (59:11): MP3

8/9/63: Reading: Denise Levertov

complete reading (1:04:08): MP3

8/12/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov

  1. Part 1 (39:25): MP3
  2. Part 2 (50:52): MP3

8/14/63: Reading: Robert Creeley

Due to a power outage, only the first 14 minutes of the reading were recorded.

  1. A Song ("I had wanted a quiet testament") (1:40): MP3
  2. The Innocence (0:33): MP3
  3. The Ball Game (1:04): MP3
  4. The Carnival (0:28): MP3
  5. After Lorca (0:41): MP3
  6. The Crow (0:29): MP3
  7. The Immoral Proposition (0:35): MP3
  8. The Operation (0:43): MP3
  9. I Know a Man (1:27): MP3
  10. The Lover (0:35): MP3
  11. Wait for Me (1:17): MP3
  12. The Warning (0:20): MP3
  13. A Form of Adaptation (0:51): MP3
  14. La Noche (0:31): MP3
  15. The Whip (0:15): MP3
  16. All That is Lovely in Men (0:25): MP3
  17. Juggler's Thought (0:32): MP3
  18. A Form of Women (1:07): MP3

complete recording (13:57): mp3

8/14/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Olson

  1. Part 1 (17:33): MP3
  2. Part 2 (1:07:39): MP3

8/14/63: Reading: Charles Olson

complete reading (1:34:47): MP3

8/16/63: Discussion featuring Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Allen Ginsberg

  1. Part 1 (21:15): MP3
  2. Part 2 (1:00:51): MP3

8/16/63: Charles Olson

  1. Maximus, from Dogtown II [II;9-10] (4:18): MP3
  2. Maximus, to himself as of 'Phoenicians' [II:111] (1:14): MP3
  3. Maximus, to Gloucester, Letter 27 [withheld] [II-14-15] [1:5-8] (2:14): MP3, TEXT, youtube
  4. Maximus, further on (December 28th, 1959) [II:13] (1:11): MP3
  5. The Poem (0:28): MP3
  6. River #1 (1:19): MP3
  7. River #2 (0:46): MP3
  8. Okeanos' Dream (1:18): MP3
  9. The South East Wind (1:20): MP3
  10. I Tell You It's Cruel (2:34): MP3
  11. Three Poems (1:45): MP3
  12. Of Old Times (2:12): MP3
  13. They said she went off (0:23): MP3
  14. A Maximus (2:08): MP3
  15. A coast is not the same as land (9:59): MP3
  16. Maximus Letter Whatever (2:19): MP3
  17. First Stevens Song (1:22): MP3
  18. Upward Choking on Dogtown (1:17): MP3
  19. I force the calm grey waters (1:08): MP3
  20. By the way into the woods (0:22): MP3
  21. The rock listens to itself (0:42): MP3
  22. Later Tyrian Business [II:36] (1:26): MP3
  23. For Robert Duncan Who Understands (8:48): MP3
  24. Further Completion of Platt (3:58): MP3
  25. Untitled (1:11): MP3
  26. A Prayer (0:37): MP3
  27. All having breakfast (0:59): MP3
  28. Gee Avenue (0:25): MP3
  29. Where is the B. Elery (0:11): MP3
  30. Maximus Written to be a note to myself (about Stevens) (3:01): MP3
  31. 23 School and 16 Columbia (2:12): MP3
  32. I Stand on Main St. (0:33): MP3
  33. Letter 72 (1:46): MP3
  34. Descartes solider in a time of religious wars (0:45): MP3
  35. In the interleaved almanacs of 1646 (1:55): MP3
  36. Of the Parsons (3:33): MP3
  37. The Beginnings (5:38): MP3
  38. Maximus at the Harbour (2:56): MP3
  39. 2nd Century Song (7:10): MP3
  40. from "Fort Point section," Maximus II [II:83ff] (7:40): MP3
  41. from Maximus II, final poems [II:199- 202] (5:33): MP3
  42. The Songs of Maximus [I.13-16] (6:22): MP3
  43. Maximus, to Himself ("I have had to learn the simplest things / last ...") [I:52-53] (2:26): MP3
  44. The Blue Monster (0:57): MP3
  45. The Lordly & Isolate Satyr (8:38): MP3
  46. Le Bonheur (2:22): MP3
  47. The Charge (2:37): MP3
  48. Spring (1:16): MP3
  49. As the Dead Prey Upon Us (10:25): MP3
  50. Kingfishers (6:31): MP3
  51. Letter 3 ("Tansy buttons ...") [I:9-16] (8:00): MP3

complete reading (2:45:53): MP3

Also of Interest

  • Warren Tallman Lecture: Treatise on Alcohol, May 27, 1979 (2:02:12): MP3
  • Warren Tallman Lecture: September: A Necessary Politics for Stan Persky, November 30, 1999 (1:02:21): MP3

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. © 2014 all participating authors, The Slought Foundation, and Fred Wah. Recordings were made with cooperation of the Slought Foundation and Fred Wah. Used with permission of Wah and the poets or poet's estates. Distributed by PennSound.