PennSound: Charles Olson (2024)

PoemTalk #34,Bob Perelman, Rachel Blau DuPlessis and Charles Bernstein discuss Olson's Maximus poems, July 26, 2010

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

Reading from Maximus, Poems IV, V, VI, c. 1969, pub. 1975

Produced, edited, and recorded by Barry Miles

Complete recording (1:00:30): MP3

1. I Am The Gold Machine [w/ intro] (1:50): MP3
2. All My Life(0:23): MP3
3. Piggy Back Poem (0:22): MP3
4. Maximus From Dogtown II [w/ intro] (4:09): MP3
5. Sequentio (0:36): MP3
6. Gravely Hill (5:36): MP3
7. Between Cruiser And Plato (0:21): MP3
8. I, John Watts (0:33): MP3
9. After The Storm Is Over (0:35): MP3
10. To Travel Typhon (0:20): MP3
11. Up The Steps (0:12): MP3
12. People Want Delivery (0:15): MP3
13. The Coast (0:19): MP3
14. Tesserai Commisure (0:14): MP3
15. Older Than Biblus (0:19): MP3
16. Chronicles I (0:48): MP3
17. Chronicles II (0:30): MP3
18. Untitled Maximus Poem [from mss] (2:00): MP3
19. Vida Unpanishad Eda Then (0:03): MP3
20. Kent Circle (Wrote My First Poems) (1:15): MP3
21. Further Completion Of Plot (1:57): MP3
22. Maximus Poem July 24, 1968 (3:14): MP3
23. Into The Stream, Gloucester (0:19): MP3
24. The Frontlet (0:55): MP3
25. To Enter Into Their Bodies (0:41): MP3
26. Her Stern Like A Box (0:13): MP3
27. Anacoluthic And Drag (0:09): MP3
28. The Difference Of A Wild Thing (0:09): MP3
29. The Cormorant And Spindle (0:04): MP3
30. Absolutness (0:02): MP3
31. In The Harbour (0:07): MP3
32. Kent Circle Song (0:19): MP3
33. I Swang Out At Eight Or Ten (0:12): MP3
34. J.W. (0:47): MP3
35. Not The Italian Method (0:14): MP3
36. Mayan Letter #13 (8:40): MP3
37. Mayan Letter #7 (1:32): MP3
38. Mayan Letter #5 (7:47): MP3
39. Chockablock (2:12): MP3
40. Caches (2:04): MP3
41. Bolan I (0:26): MP3
42. Bolan II (0:38): MP3
43. John Watts (0:09): MP3
44. Third Letter On Georges (1:50): MP3
45. Gulf Of Main (2:40): MP3

Reading from Maximus, vol. 2, Beloit College (March 26, 1968)

Complete reading (50:51): MP3

1. Introduction (0:47): MP3
2. out over the land skope [II.126] (3:14): MP3
3. Part of the Flower of Gloucester [II.127] (0:38): MP3
4. Veda upanishad edda than [II.128] (0:15): MP3
5. Wrote my first poems [II.129] (1:27): MP3
6. the 1st lot from the Cutt [II.130] (0:31): MP3
7. I am the Gold Machine [II.131] (1:47): MP3
8. In the harbor [II.132] (0:11): MP3
9. Kent Circle Song [II.133] (0:24): MP3
10. I swung out, at 8 or 10 [II.134] (0:12): MP3
11. JW (from the Danelaw) [II.135] (0:59): MP3
12. proem [II.136-137] (4:12): MP3
13. not the intaglio method [II.138] (0:16): MP3
14. mother-spirit to f*ck at noumenon [II.139] (0:16): MP3
15. Monday, November 26, 1962 [II.140] (0:22): MP3
16. he who walks with his house on / his head [II.141] (0:16): MP3
17. she who met the serpent in the pond [II.142] (0:23): MP3
18. the woman who said she went out every Sunday [II.143] (0:21): MP3
19. into the Stream or Entrance to the Inner Harbor [II.144] (0:26): MP3
20. The Frontlet [II.145] (0:57): MP3
21. hom*o Anthropos [II.146] (0:22): MP3
22. to enter into their bodies [II.147] (1:02): MP3
23. The Cow / of Dogtown (3:38) [II.148-150]: MP3
24. Stage Fort Park [II.151] (1:15): MP3
25. Further Completion of Plat (before they drown / Dogtown with reservoir, and beautify it) [II.152] (2:41): MP3
26. Sequentior [II.153] (0:46): MP3
27. Licked man (as such) out of the ice [II.154] (0:25): MP3
28. Gylfa*ginning VI [II.155] (0:37): MP3
29. Heaven as sky is made of stone [II.156] (0:18): MP3
30. All night long [II.157] (0:31): MP3
31. the Vault / of Heaven [II.158] (0:28): MP3
32. turn out your / ever-loving arms [II.159] (0:42): MP3
33. at the boundary of the mighty world [II.160-162] (7:46): MP3
34. Maximus, from Dogtown — IV [II.163-172] [excerpt] (2:12): MP3
35. I looked up and saw / its form [II.173] (0:14): MP3
36. One of the Bronze Plaques Which Decorate These / Shores [II.174] (0:25): MP3
37. A Letter, on Fishing Grounds [of, The Gulf of Maine] by Walter H. Rich [II.175-176] (1:59): MP3
38. Maximus, to Gloucester, Letter 157 [II.177-178] (2:16): MP3

"Poetry and Truth," at Beloit College, Wisconsin. March 25-29, 1968

• Lecture I, Cosmology: March 25, 1968 (54:46): MP3


• Lecture II, Belief 1: March 27, 1968 (52:10): MP3


• Lecture III, Belief 2: March 29, 1968 (56:34): MP3
  Poems read in Lecture III:
  38:26 - 39:29: "*Added to making a Republic in gloom on Watchhouse Point" Maximus III 190 / 584
  53:32 - 54:40: '"Additions", March 1968--2' ["Wholly absorbed / into my own conduits..."] Maximus III 191 / 585
  55:05 - 56:20: "That there was a woman in Gloucester, Massachusetts..." Maximus III 189 / 583
• On Black Mountain: March 26, 1968 (1:18:45): MP3

Includes "The Librarian" [Collected Poems 412-14]; video on right just the poem (text)

Audio from these videos:

"Maximus to Gloucester, Letter 27 (withheld)" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 34.