Mark Weiss wrote:
> Probably an off night.
>
> I've heard Creeley read over a dozen times over the years. In the 70s he
> was usually so drnk and stoned as to be at moments almost
> incomprehensible.
> But that same sense of intimacy that Doug reports was always
> there.
I told my one Creeley reading story. No repetitions. But Mark's
description lines up with what I remember.
> He was for me also probably the most useful reader--I simply didn't get
> what he was doing musically until I heard him read.
This said before too: C.K. Williams had to be heard, especially in the
Tar-era poems, to figure out how to read them. Really easy when you
think about it: you don't recite them, there is no heightened
delivery--you act as though you're telling a story, you speak them as
(yikes) prosaically as possible. What does this do with the purposes
behind the long line he used for so many years? No clue.
> Probably the worst reader I've ever heard was Ashbery in the 70s and 80s.
> He apparently hated to do it, and was very uncomfortable. He improved
> thereafter, but he's still less than electrifying.
Thomas Lux, Asheville, NC, 1994. He paused at the end of every line,
regardless of whether the punctuation or natural "call" of the breath
required such a pause. Excrutiating.
Ken
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Kenneth Wolman www.kenwolman.com kenwolman.blogspot.com
If you want patience, go to medical school.
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