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John Wieners

PoemTalk #43, discussing John Wieners' "The Acts of Youth," June 13, 2011

listen to the Complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Reading at the Guggenheim Museum, NY, October 29, 1999

  1. intro (0:29): MP3
  2. Tuesday Afternoon (2:30): MP3
  3. Espionage (0:38): MP3
  4. For Marlene Dietrich (1:42): MP3
  5. Wrapped Up in an Indian Blanket (0:49): MP3
  6. After Bryon's Maid of Athens (1:09): Mp3
  7. The Old Man (1:29): MP3
  8. The Garbos and Dietrichs (1:01): MP3
  9. Stationary (0:41): MP3
  10. Thirty (0:22): MP3
  11. Autumn in New York (1:12): MP3

Reading from the Poetry Project at St. Mark's, NY, November 7, 1996

  1. intro (0:45): MP3
  2. Billie (1:06): MP3
  3. Rap (0:50):MP3
  4. Apparition (0:42)MP3
  5. Consolation (1:24): MP3
  6. Deprivation (0:51): MP3
  7. Inoperable (0:46): MP3
  8. Private Estate (1:20): MP3
  9. Just an Ordinary Joe (1:13): MP3
  10. Times Square (0:10): MP3
  11. After Symond's Venice (5:32): MP3

Reading from the Poetry Project at St. Mark's, April 25, 1990

Reading in San Francisco, Cloud House Poetry Archives, March 25, 1990

introduced by Robert Gluck, interview with Kevin Killian follows

Reading from Brooklyn College, NY, 1988

  1. About Himself (1:05): MP3
  2. Solitary Pleasure (1:43): MP3
  3. Two Barbarians (1:42): MP3

Hanuman Presents! reading at the Poetry Project, New York May 18, 1984

Poetry Reading at Allentown Community Center, February 19, 1976

Courtesy of The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

Reading with Robert Creeley at the San Francisco Museum of Art, November 15, 1973

Presented by Poetry Center Archive Goes Live!: historic videos from the Poetry Center Archive Collection, San Francisco State University.

Media.SAS direct URL: MP4

Reading from WBCN Radio, Boston, 1972

  1. Loss (0:40):MP3
    2. Note: This version of "Loss" appears to be a broadcast of a recording of a reading given by Wieners at St. Mark's Poetry Project on January 6, 1971. This recording was later included on the double LP The World Record: St. Mark's Poetry Project 1969-1980. This less degraded version of the recording is available below. The identical audio quality of "A Superficial Estimation" indicates that it, too, most likely comes from the 1971 St. Mark's reading.
  2. A Superficial Estimation (3:16): MP3
  3. The Garbos and Dietrichs (1:03): MP3

Reading and Lecture, August 17, 1972 (1:40:40): MP3

  1. prefatory comments (3:29): MP3
  2. Advice (2:44): MP3
  3. A Poem for Painters (7:26): MP3
  4. The Magic of This Summer [excerpt] (9:26): MP3
  5. A Dark Brew (7:50): MP3
  6. Playboy (25:16): MP3
  7. Children of the Working Class (4:42): MP3
  8. By the Bars (3:38): MP3
  9. For Ed Dorn (2:04): MP3
  10. on the word "Beth" in the poem "Advice" (2:15): MP3
  11. The Lanterns Along the Wall (8:48): MP3
  12. on Laura Riding and giving up poetry (5:07): MP3
  13. on process, classicism and the conjunction of poetry and truth (13:13): MP3
  14. on Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) (3:37): MP3
  15. A Poem for Painters (9:44) MP3, Transcription of final two sections, last few minutes of recording plus full poem

Visiting Robert Creeley's ENG-1670 Course, Harvard University, 1972

Reading and Lecture, August 15th (1:51:43): MP3

  1. Prefatory comments (2:08): MP3
  2. Anniversary (2:51): MP3
  3. San Francisco, 1958 (1:59): MP3
  4. With Meaning (5:33): MP3
  5. Act #2 (3:43): MP3
  6. The Garbos and Dietrichs (1:32): MP3
  7. The Old Man (1:43): MP3
  8. Beauty never as mine (1:04): MP3
  9. L'invitation au Voyage II (1:50): MP3
  10. On splitting words into fragments and the chronology of poems (4:00): MP3
  11. You Talk of Going But Don't Even Have a Suitcase (1:54): MP3
  12. Impasse (1:27): MP3
  13. For Huncke (6:05): MP3
  14. Joy (1:20): MP3
  15. Hillside (1:28): MP3
  16. San Francisco (1:36): MP3
  17. Feminine Soliloquy (2:14): MP3
  18. Acceptance (0:58): MP3
  19. A poem for the old man (1:17): MP3
  20. On Sunday (0:32): MP3
  21. The Serpent's Hiss (1:16): MP3
  22. Desperation (2:33): MP3
  23. The Acts of Youth (4:20): MP3
  24. On the poetry of affect and the impetus for writing (8:35): MP3
  25. On being an artist, imitating styles and the self (7:51): MP3
  26. On writing what you don't know, repetition modifying experience and activity as art (7:35): MP3
  27. On the contemporary in Weiners' poems and navigating different moralities (7:26): MP3
  28. On homosexuality in poems and society's attitude toward the sexual condition (17:01): MP3
  29. On the communication explosion (2:03): MP3
  30. On locating the I, love poetry and practicing writing (7:43): MP3

"The Acts of Youth" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 43.

Reading at St. Mark's Poetry Project, NY, January 6, 1971 (date tentative)

  • Complete recording (42:38): MP3

Reading at St. Mark's Poetry Project, 1970 (date tentative)

  • Complete recording (37:22): MP3

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

  1. Loss (0:37): MP3
  2. Elizabeth Taylor is My Sister (3:12): MP3

Discussion with Walter Lowenfels, Alan DeLoach and Lillian Lowenfels, March 24, 1969

  • Complete recording (53:01): MP3

Poetry reading at the Spring Arts Festival, University at Buffalo, March 19, 1968

Courtesy of The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

Reading at St. Mark's Church, January 3, 1968

  • Complete reading (51:52): MP3

John Wieners reading at Brooklyn College, 1968, from the Eric Mottram collection

  1. Part 1 (48:00): MP3
  2. Part 2 (14:12): MP3

Reading, SUNY-Buffalo, November 30, 1967 or possibly Feburary 15, 1967

Complete Reading (45:54): MP3 thanks to the Slought Foundation

  1. L'invitation Au Voyage II (2:46): MP3
  2. "Hope your neighbors don't care..." (1:05): MP3
  3. "Oppression, war breeds famine, plague..." (0:33): MP3
  4. What Happened? (1:10): MP3
  5. "He will take me far beyond..." (0:38): MP3
  6. Billie (0:43): MP3
  7. Clarification and Wonders - Spots in My Eyes (4:11): MP3
  8. "As I put out my cigarette tonight in bed..." (2:29): MP3
  9. Unutterable (0:40): MP3
  10. Ina O'Shea (1:19): MP3
  11. Where'd Our Love Go? (1:54): MP3
  12. Poem (Unidentified) (0:37): MP3
  13. A Poem for Vipers (1:36): MP3
  14. Sunset (1:59): MP3
  15. For Hunke (2:48): MP3
  16. Mermaid's Song (1:08): MP3
  17. "Let the heart's pain slack off..." (1:11): MP3
  18. The Suicide - Address to the Woman (0:36): MP3
  19. For Jan (0:50): MP3
  20. Confession (3:06): MP3
  21. Cocaine (1:08): MP3
  22. Moon Poems (1:02): MP3
  23. The Serpent's Hiss (0:50): MP3
  24. "The music loses..." (0:46): MP3
  25. "A lady plucks a lute above my head..." (0:39): MP3
  26. "I walk under the distant stars..." (1:19): MP3
  27. Perfect (0:40): MP3
  28. A Poem for the Old Man (1:24): MP3

Reading at the Unterberg Poetry Center, 92nd Street Y, New York, NY, October 24, 1966

With Robert Creeley

Complete reading (21:33): MP3

  1. Introduction by Ed Sanders (1:06): MP3
  2. Diana (0:51): MP3
  3. Invocation to Summer (0:58): MP3
  4. Invitation Au Voyage II (1:51): MP3
  5. Love (0:41): MP3
  6. Time (0:43): MP3
  7. Nocturne (1:46): MP3
  8. Holy Orders in Life (0:47): MP3
  9. The Garbos and Dietrichs (1:06): MP3
  10. Billie (0:49): MP3
  11. LSD (1:09): MP3
  12. Only Lust Rules There (1:01): MP3
  13. A poem for vipers (1:17): MP3
  14. A poem for Painters (7:25): MP3

Recording courtesy of the Unterberg Poetry Center

Date and Location Unknown, possibly Berkeley in July, 1965

  1. a poem for record players (1:40): MP3
  2. a poem for Painters (7:20): MP3
  3. a poem for the old man (1:42): MP3
  4. "Wracked by beauty..." (0:56): MP3
  5. Dion Doyle (0:52): MP3
  6. "Grieving battle of swing..." (0:55): MP3
  7. A Poem to Dawn (1:19): MP3
  8. Cocaine (2:20): MP3
  9. Watchmen, What of the Night? (3:46): MP3
  10. My Mother (0:51): MP3
Complete reading (22:19): MP3

Reading at the Berkeley Poetry Conference, July 14, 1965

  1. Robert Creeley intro (2:17): MP3
  2. Chinoiserie (1:01): MP3
  3. Night Boat to Cairo (2:36): MP3
  4. The Mole Proposes Solitude (1:54): MP3
  5. For Denise Levertov (0:19): MP3
  6. Despair is Given Me (0:51): MP3
  7. Moon Poems (2:15): MP3
  8. The Imperatrice (1:42): MP3
  9. Tuesday 7:00 PM (1:52): MP3
  10. Le Chariot (0:51): MP3
  11. Procrastination (1:30): MP3
  12. The Suicide (2:18): MP3
  13. untitled (SF Poem) (1:53): MP3
Complete reading (19:18): MP3

Poetry Reading, Date and Location Unknown, Possibly March 14, 1965

Courtesy of The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

Reading, SUNY Buffalo, September 19, 1965

Reading from Paul Blackburn’s WBAI program, 1960s

Complete recording (33:47): MP3

Reading at Mad Mammoth Monster Poetry Readings, August 29, 1959

  • A Poem for Cocksuckers (1:23): MP3
  • A Poem for the Old Man (1:31): MP3

Reading from "A Superficial Estimation" (begins in progress) at St. Mark's Poetry Project

  • Complete recording (13:04): MP3

John Wieners 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 author.
© 2009-2014 John Wieners Trust. Used with permission of the John Wieners Trust. Distributed by PennSound.