David Meltzer: September 24, 2015

David Meltzer reads and remarks on "This is a Book of Basics," "The Poet Asks His Seven Year Old Daughter, What is a Poem?" "Poetry is Speech That Attempts to Be Song," and "Breath. Voice. To Sound," by Orpingalik, "What is The Virtue of Letters" from Barddas, "We Do Not Hate the Human Beings That Listen to It," by Jack Spicer, "The First Poem Came Through Me When I Was Eleven Years-old," "When I Solo I Listen to Me" by Bobby Hackett. "America's Speech Waterfalls Forth," "Extinct Languages: A Sampler," "Parts 1," "Additional Problems," "I Asked Jenny How She Knew What She Saw in the Mirror" from Two-Way Mirror: A Poetry Notebook. Meltzer entertains questions from the audience and then reads: "Song Begins When You Discover Song," "How can I know if I write verse or prose" by Edmond Jabes, "Part of Me Sings," "It's Head Work"; and "Suicide," by Louis Aragon. Meltzer then reads his poems "O Harps of Early Morning," "Music Holds The Body," "Conlon Nancarrow," and "How Do We Sing," from Harps. Next, Meltzer reads "Lamentation / for Jack Spicer," "The Argument," "The Argument: 2," "The Argument: 3," and "It's Simple" from David's Copy: The Selected Poems of David Meltzer. Finally, Meltzer takes questions from the audience.