Comments and Tags (0)
Share
Download as PDF

KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Ode To Gravity: A Poetry Reading by Charles Reznikoff, March 21, 1974, 2 of 2

Analog Audio

Event Type
Spoken Word
Origin
KPFA
Identifier
OTG.1974.03.21.B
Program Series
Ode To Gravity
Program Length
55 min
Part
2 of 2
Dates
1974-05-15 | broadcast
| 1974-03-21 | created
Description
A reading by the then 80 year old Charles Reznikoff, recorded at the Poetry Center of San Francisco State University on March 21, 1974, in which the poet reads a selection of his works written from 1918 to 1974. Reznikoff, along with fellow poets Carl Rakosi, Louis Zukofsky, and George Oppen were dubbed the Objectivist Poets by Ezra Pound back in the 1930s, and it is Oppen who offers a warm introduction at the start of this program. Reznikoff then reads a number of his mostly short and untitled poems, the topics of which range from vignettes about life in New York City, portraits of working people of varying ethnicity, stories garnered from law reports, and ruminations on Judaism. Always cheerful, never boring, and free of all pretension, this is a poet for the ages.

Note: The attribution of these poems is based on the 2005 edition of “The Poems of Charles Reznikoff” edited by Seamus Cooney except where noted.
Genres
Poetry
Musical Selections
“The company had advertised for men to unload a steamer across” [”Testimony I”] (01:38) -- Land of Refuge [excerpt, from “New Nation” from “Separate Way No. 11”] (0:37) -- Brief History [excerpt, from “New Nation” from “Separate Way No. 11”] (0:33) -- The English in Virginia, April 1607 [”Jerusalem the Golden No. 74”] (1:10) -- Samuel [”A Fifth Group of Verse No. 20”] (1:11) --From the Apocalyptic Ezra [”Inscriptions No. 15”] (3:10) -- "The highway I was walking on" [”By the Well of Living and Seeing II No. 7”] (3:33) -- "God saw Adam in a town" [”A Fifth Group of Verse No. 17”] (0:15) -- The Bastard (3:29) -- "I like the streets of New York City," [excerpt “Autobiography: Hollywood No. 1” from “Going To and Fro and Walking Up and Down”] (0:36)
Subjects
Poetry
Acknowledgment
Funding for the preservation of this program made possible through a grant by the GRAMMY Foundation.
Related places
San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)
Berkeley (Calif.) (was broadcast at)
Related Entities
Amirkhanian, Charles
Reznikoff, Charles, 1894-1976