William Stafford and Charles Bukowski: December 6, 1973

The Poetry Center presents William Stafford and Charles Bukowski, reading their works in an anomalous pairing at the San Francisco Museum of Art (prior to its "Museum of Modern Art" designation) at its Van Ness Avenue location in the War Memorial Opera House building. Kansas-born and a conscientious objector during World War II, Stafford at the time was recent Consultant in Poetry for the Library of Congress (1970–71, the position now known as U.S. Poet Laureate) and is visiting from Portland, Oregon, where he taught at Lewis & Clark College; he reads among other work poems included in his book Someday, Maybe (Harper & Row, 1973). Bukowski, in town from his home in East Hollywood, is fresh off an earlier reading hosted by City Lights Books, the recording of which would be issued two years later on double-LP as Poems & Insults! Live Reading, City Lights Poets Theater, San Francisco, September 14, 1973. Here he reads poems from Mockingbird Wish Me Luck (Black Sparrow Press, 1972) among other work. San Francisco "street poet" Jack Micheline makes an intervention, reading from two of his own poems near the end of Bukowski's set. Kathleen Fraser introduces the writers, navigating a racous audience at the close of her first year as director and the 20th year of The Poetry Center.

Note: the first portion of Bukowski's reading appears as audio only, with a video still on screen, before the moving image resumes. The audio recording includes his full reading intact.