Browse Reading by Year

George Bowering reads primarily from Points on the Grid (1964), The Man in Yellow Boots (1965), and The Silver Wire (1966).

Robert Creeley reads primarily from For Love: Poems 1950-1960 (1962), before closing with work that would be collected in The Gold Diggers (1965) and Words (1967). This is the Poetry Center's earliest recorded reading.

John Frederick Nims reads from Knowledge of the Evening (1960) and Of Flesh and Bone (1967); he also reads translations of poems by St. John of the Cross and Catullus. 

Ruth Stephan reads from her collection Various Poems (1963). She also reads uncollected poems, one of which responds to John F. Kennedy's assassination a year prior.

Gary Snyder reads poems that would go on to be collected in The Back Country (1968) and talks about his experiences in Japan. He also reads one section of his long work Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996).

May Swenson reads from To Mix With Time (1963) and from the manuscript for Half Sun Half Sleep (1967).

John Newlove reads poems from Moving In Alone (1965) and Black Night Window (1968). The sound on the original recording is somewhat distorted. 

Cecil Day Lewis reads poems from Pegasus and Other Poems (1957), The Gate (1962), and The Room and Other Poems (1965). Sound quality is somewhat garbled throughout this recording. 

Robert Sward reads primarily from Thousand-Year-Old Fiancée and Other Poems (1965) and Kissing the Dancer and Other Poems (1964). He also reads two poems that were unpublished at the time of the reading and a poem and excerpt from an essay by Pablo Neruda.

Ruth Stone reads extensively from In an Iridescent Time (1959) and Topoography and Other Poems (1971); she also reads some unpublished poems.

Reed Whittemore reads poems that would later appear in his collection Poems: New and Selected (1967), as well as one unpublished poem.

Marguerite Young reads selections of her poetry and excerpts from her novel Miss MacIntosh, My Darling (1965), offering commentary on the process and context for each piece. 

In this reading, Robert Bly treats the audience to translations of Issa, Neruda, and Kabir more than five years before they began to be collected in his books. He also reads uncollected poems and poems from his book The Light Around the Body, which was published the year following this reading.

Alan Dugan reads from Poems (1961) and Poems 2 (1963), along with poems that would go on to appear in Poems 3 (1967) and several later collections.

Louise Bogan reads poems collected in The Blue Estuaries: Poems, 1923-1968 (1968).

John Crowe Ransom reads widely from his extensive body of work.

George Reavey reads from The Colours of Memory (1955), Quixotic Perquisitions (1932) and The New Russian Poets, 1953-1966 (1966), as well as uncollected work.

This reading opens with Lawrence Ferlinghetti reading from his journal about stopping in Salome, Arizona on his way to perform for the Poetry Center. He reads primarily from A Coney Island of the Mind but also includes a performance of Walter Lowenfels's anti-war poem "Where is Vietnam."

David Wagoner reads primarily from Staying Alive (1966) and New and Selected Poems (1969).

Thomas Kinsella reads poems from Downstream (1962), Wormwood (1966), and Nightwalker and Other Poems (1968), as well as poems that would later appear in Collected Poems 1956-1994 (1996) and Selected Poems (2007).

William Stafford reads poems from West of Your City (1960), Traveling through the Dark (1962), and The Rescued Year (1966), as well as poems that would be published in later books.

Galway Kinnell reads primarily from his 1968 collection of poems Body Rags, which received a special mention from the National Book Award for Poetry in 1969. He begins by discussing and reading poems by Tu Fu, James Wright, Theodore Roethke, Robert Bly, and Walt Whitman.

Gene Frumkin reads poems from The Rainbow-Walker (1968). This reading was originally given with Douglas Flaherty.

Douglas Flaherty reads poems from The Elderly Battlefield Nurse (1968). This reading was originally given with Gene Frumkin.

James Tate reads from his first collection, The Lost Pilot (1967), along with poems that would be collected in The Oblivion Ha-Ha (1970).

James Tate is interviewed by student Rick Taylor.

Bert Meyers reads from Early Rain and The Dark Birds.

W.S. Merwin reads from his early collections The Moving Target (1963) and The Lice (1967), as well as from The Carrier of Ladders (1970), which had not yet been completed at the time of this reading. Used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

John Haines reads from Winter News (1966), The Stone Harp (1971), and Twenty Poems (1971).

Poet, playwright, and novelist Owen Dodson reads a range of poems from his distinguished career. As he introduces his poems, Dodson reflects on his consciousness as a writer, from his undergraduate days at Bates College to his engagement with spirituality, Civil Rights, and social justice.

In this performance, Allen Ginsberg reads from Howl (1956), Kaddish (1961), and Reality Sandwiches (1963). He also discusses his writing process and reads some unpublished excerpts.

George MacBeth reads widely from his work.

George Hitchcock reads from his first four books: Poems & Prints (1962), Tactics of Survival (1964), The Dolphin with the Revolver in Its Teeth (1967), and A Ship of Bells (1968). He also reads work that will later be collected in The Rococo Eye (1970) and Lessons in Alchemy (1976). He opens the reading with a selection of found poems from the volume Pioneers of Modern Poetry (1967), which he crafted with Robert L. Peters.

Richard Shelton reads from The Tattooed Desert (1970), as well as several poems from Journal of Return (1969) and Of All the Dirty Words (1972).

Jon Anderson reads primarily from Looking for Jonathan (1968) and Death & Friends (1970), in addition to one poem from In Sepia (1974). The reading opens with a humorous description of Anderson's attempt to apply for a job writing copy for the Hallmark Greeting Card company.

Robert Mezey reads primarily from The Door Standing Open: New and Selected Poems, 1954-1969 (1970). He opens the reading with a selection of poems from poets he admires, including Yehuda Amichai, César Vallejo, and W.S. Merwin.

Donald Justice reads primarily from Night Light (1967) along with poems that would be collected in Departures (1973) three years after this reading. He reads "Three Odes" as a poetic sequence for the first time in his career.

Steve Orlen reads largely uncollected early poems, some of which appeared in Poetry magazine or would later appear in his chapbooks Sleeping on Doors (1975) and Separate Creatures (1976).

Poet and Ironwood publisher Michael Cuddihy performs his poetry in a reading given with Franz Douskey and Ramona Weeks.

Poet and young adult novelist Ramona Weeks reads from Lincoln County Poems (1973) and unpublished selections. This reading was originally given alongside Michael Cuddihy and Franz Douskey.

Franz Douskey reads a variety of uncollected poems. This reading was originally given alongside Michael Cuddihy and Ramona Weeks.

Jim Harrison reads widely from his earliest collections of poetry: Plain Song (1965), Locations (1968), and Outlyer & Ghazals (1971).

Diane Wakoski reads poems from her early books, including Discrepancies and Apparitions (1966), Inside the Blood Factory (1968), The Magellanic Clouds (1970), The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems (1971), and Smudging (1972).

Bill Roecker reads poems appearing in Willamette (1970), You Know Me (1972), and Closer to the Country (1976).

Peter Wild reads poems primarily from Terms & Renewals (1970). He also reads from other recent collections, including The Afternoon in Dismay (1968), Mica Mountain Poems (1968), Love Poems (1969), and Fat Man Poems (1970).

Neil Claremon reads from East by Southwest (1970), along with uncollected poems and poems that would later appear in West of the American Dream: Visions of an Alien Landscape (1973).

Paul Zimmer reads from The Republic of Many Voices (1969), along with poems that would be published in The Zimmer Poems (1976) or remain uncollected. Making use of persona, narrative, and humor, he addresses topics such as childhood, identity, and mortality.

David Ignatow reads widely from his work of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s; this reading also includes several uncollected poems.