Kenneth Irby

Kenneth Irby, May 2006 (photo courtesy of Ben Friedlander [see full size])

Reading at the Kenneth Irby Colloquium, Lawrence, KS, November 5, 2011

1. Introduction (1:40): MP3
2. Ken's Opening Remarks (4:35): MP3
3. A letter from Robert Duncan (7:29): MP3
4. A Letter from Ed Dorn (3:36): MP3
5. Thanksgiving Day, and Lowell's Birthday (8:54): MP3
6. Late October after Death of a friends father (3:36): MP3
7. Homage to Josephine Baker (2:13): MP3
8. Strawberry Canyon (2:48): MP3
9. Point Reyes Poem (2:58): MP3
10. Visitations (5:13): MP3
11. Visitations Homage to Emerson (7:39): MP3
12. Notes (5:13): MP3
13. Closing remarks (5:15): MP3

Complete Reading (1:01:15): MP3

Recordings courtesy of Benjamin D. Cartwright

Reading at the Holloway Poetry Series at UC Berkeley, November 4, 2010

Original Recording
1. Introduction by William J. Harris (5:09): MP3
2. Ken Irby thanks grad students, dedicates The Intent On (4:59): MP3
3. Introduction and The Grasslands of North America (4:26): MP3
4. Excerpt from a 1950 letter from Neil Cassady to Jack Kerouac (3:03): MP3
5. Narrative (5:40): MP3
6. Homage to Tennyson, "The Lady of Shalott" (4:52): MP3
7. I have fetched phoenix papers (3:47): MP3
8. As a Preface, March 1967 (1:40): MP3
9. Written on Chuck Stein's 60th Birthday, August 23, 2004 (4:08): MP3
10. Homage to Kasimierz Przerwa-Tetmajer (1:53): MP3
11. A Valentine for Tom Meyer's birthday (1:38): MP3
12. Late In The Winter (1:44): MP3
13. Record (5:01): MP3
14. Some Notes of House and Woods for Gerrit (9:48): MP3
15. Homage (1:17): MP3

1. Introduction (McCrary) (6:03): MP3
2. Introduction (Irby) (11:18): MP3
3. a life into a few vegetables (3:19): MP3
4. some high new tangerine wax fancy (2:17): MP3
5. 2 February 1992 (0:25): MP3
6. Transcontinental (1:16): MP3
7. Visitations (5:29): MP3
8. Borrowers (1:53): MP3
9. Ludus, ludere (3:07): MP3
10. the sidewalks are all dried after the rain (0:44): MP3
11. In Alvin's parking lot (1:21): MP3
12. on that estate there is an indoor pool (0:49): MP3
13. Plotinus wrote (0:57): MP3
14. Is that made according to the President's regulations (1:13): MP3
15. Dale Hawkins is dead (4:08): MP3
16. Sotto Voce (3:20): MP3
17. An October Poem (4:40): MP3
18. When I Was Younger (3:36): MP3

• Complete Recording, Introduction by John McCrary (1:41:02): MP3

1. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (T.S. Eliot) and introduction by Philip Kimball (2:25): MP3
2. "Those Winter Sundays" (R. Hayden) (1:28): MP3
3. "Pleasures" (D. Levertov) (2:02): MP3
4. "The Goddess" (D. Levertov) (1:52): MP3
5. "This Place Rumored To Be Sodom" (R. Duncan) (4:01): MP3
6. "Maximus, to Himself" (C. Olson) (3:21): MP3
7. "To the Sunset Breeze" (W. Whitman) (4:00): MP3
8. "A Thought of Columbus" (W. Whitman) (3:59): MP3
9. "The Muster" (H. Melville) (2:10): MP3
10. "Commemorative of a Naval Victory" (H. Melville) (1:36): MP3
11. [read by Philip Kimball] "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" (M.L. King) (9:21): MP3
12. Excerpt from an interview with Ed Dorn in Mike & Dale's Younger Poets (2:26): MP3
13. "Sketches from Edgewater" (E. Dorn) (3:42): MP3
14. "Both Names Meaning Daisy" (P. Doud) (5:00): MP3
15. "[Instructions]" (K. Irby) (2:20): MP3
16. "[Borrowers]" (K. Irby) (2:14): MP3
17. "The King's seal..." (K. Irby) (2:39): MP3
18. "The quiet intricate..." (K. Irby) (3:35): MP3

Reading at Ear Inn, New York, December 12, 1987

• Complete Recording (32:01): MP3

Reading at Ear Inn, New York, May 12, 1984

1. Introduction by Eric Mottram (1:30): MP3
2. on Mary Butts (4:53): MP3
3. Vision (by Mary Butts) (4:43): MP3
4. The Pythian Ode (by Mary Butts) (6:05): MP3
5. Juan-les-Pins (by Mary Butts) (4:50): MP3
6. On an American Wonder-Child (by Mary Butts) (2:41): MP3
7. Antibes (by Mary Butts) (3:14): MP3
8. Return/Last draft of Sergey poem (by Mary Butts) (11:14): MP3
9. on Erratics (3:36): MP3
10. I met the Angel Sus (3:06): MP3
11. the Skin Bridge (5:16): MP3
12. kotodama (5:33): MP3
13. Gutter Ode (4:03): MP3
14. slowly the old stone (1:28): MP3
15. homage to Andrei Bely (2:54): MP3
16. given: three beavers in a tree (2:49): MP3
17. A Set (13:17): MP3

1. Introduction (3:05): MP3
2. "Joyful Night" by Jose Lezama Lima, translated by James Irby (6:06): MP3
3. Tangencies (3:46): MP3
4. Resistance (3:46): MP3
5. An Homage to Tennyson, "The Lady of Shalott" from Catalpa (4:04): MP3
6. "[Hosea Ballou, first president of Tufts...]" from Catalpa (2:15): MP3
7. I Met the Angel Sus on the Skin Bridge (6:43): MP3
8. Late in the Winter (2:26): MP3
9. "[Restless the rain returns..."] (2:24): MP3
10. Paraphrase of Pindar for Jonathan Williams (3:46): MP3
11. Homage to Nicolas Poussin (2:11): MP3
12. "[Reading in Charles Hackett's volumes...]" (8:25): MP3
13. The Children's Corner "[Crow talk, woodpecker talk...]" (2:47): MP3
14. "[Roy Andrew Miller's essay 'The Spirit of Japanese Language'...]" (3:35): MP3
15. "[To tune the bowl, to play the bowl...]" (2:45): MP3

Reading on September 23, 1979, Location Unknown

• Part 1 (45:30): MP3
• Part 2 (43:02): MP3
(Sound quality of recording improves as it progresses.)

Kenneth Irby on PennSound Daily

• July 23, 2010: "Woodberry Poetry Room Oral History Initiative: Denise Levertov"
• January 8, 2010: "Kenneth Irby: New Author Page"

Reading of a series of poems written in Copenhagen, date and location unknown

Recorded on audiocassette. Featured in the Joris and Peyrafitte tape collection.

Part of a joint reading with Clayton Eshleman and Allen Fisher

• Copenhagen Poems (37:53): MP3

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2011 Kenneth Irby. Used with permission of Kenneth Irby. Distributed by PennSound. Special thanks to Kyle Waugh for providing much of the material on this page.