CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
1252
Partner Institution:
Concordia University
Source Collection Label:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds
Series:
The Poetry Series
Sub Series:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Title:
John Wieners at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 8 October 1966
Title Source:
Catalgouer
Title Note:
"J. WIENES I006/SR119" written on sticker on the spine of the tape's box. J. WIENES refers to John Wieners. Wieners is mispelled
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Genre:
Reading: Poetry
Identifiers:
[]
Rights
CREATORS
Name:
Wieners, John
Dates:
1934-2002
Role:
"Author",
"Performer"
Notes:
American poet, playwright and essayist John Wieners was born in Boston on January 6, 1934. In 1934, Wieners earned a B.A. in English from Boston College, and subsequently worked at Harvard University’s Lamont Library. A 1955 poetry reading by Charles Olson inspired Wieners to attend Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he met and was mentored by Charles Olson and Robert Duncan. After completing studies in 1956, John Wieners moved back to Boston and started Measure, a (short-lived) literary magazine, as well as becoming involved in the Poet’s Theater in Cambridge. At the age of 24, (in 1958) Wieners moved to San Francisco and met Beat Poets Jack Kerouac, Jack Spicer and Allen Ginsberg, and published his first book of poems, The Hotel Wentley Poems (Dave Haselwood Publishing, 1965). John Wieners’ San Francisco journal, The Journal of John Wieners Is To Be Called 707 Scott Street for Billie Holiday, 1959, was published in 1966 by Sun & Moon Press. Wieners wrote plays that were never published during this time, until 1964 when he published Ace of Pentacles (published by James F. Carr & Robert A. Wilson). Charles Olson asked Wieners to be a graduate student and a teaching assistant at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1965, and Wieners eventually became the university’s chair of poetics, when he left by 1967. John Wieners suffered from mental illness, and was institutionalized for the second time in 1969, where he wrote Asylum Poems (For My Father) (Press of the Black Flag Raised). In 1970, he published Nerves (Cape Goliard Press), an internationally published book of poetry, and between 1967 to 1972, he published six smaller books of poetry. Behind the State Capitol; or, Cincinnati Pike (Good Gay Poets Press) was published in 1975 and thus marked the last of his published poems. John Wieners’ poetry, while highly appraised by Beat Poets, Black Mountain Poets and his peers, did not achieve wide public acclaim or readership. In 1985, however, Selected Poems, 1958-1984 (Black Sparrow Press) was compiled with the help of Robert Creeley and Allen Ginsberg. In the 70’s, John Wieners lived and became involved with anti-war movements and became an activist for gay rights, living at 44 Joy Street in Boston. Becoming more and more reclusive after the mid 70’s, John Wieners died of an apparent stroke on March 1, 2002. Michael Carr edited a posthumous collection of Wiener’s 1971 journals which was published in 2007.
CONTRIBUTORS
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Reel to Reel
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/4 inch
Playing Speed:
7 1/2 ips
Track Configuration:
Half-track
Playback Mode:
Mono
Tape Brand:
Scotch
Sound Quality:
Good
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
File Path:
files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3
Duration:
00:21:42
Size:
52.1 MB
Content:
John Wieners
00:00:00
Reads “Invocation to Summer” [recording begins abruptly].
John Wieners
00:01:09
"Invitation Au Voyage: II". Do you know that poem of Baudelaire's
? It's something at the end of the world. He’s speaking to his beloved, very simple. You know, lots of the German Romanticism was very simple.
John Wieners
00:01:30
Reads "Invitation Au Voyage: II".
John Wieners
00:03:15
Well let's go back to the old poems then, that have been published. Stuart Montgomery, well it doesn't matter. But that--I can send it off to England
to the Fulcrum Press
doing a lot of Basil Bunting
and the English poet of 65, resuscitated in America
again, it's about time.
John Wieners
00:03:44
Reads "Long Nook" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:04:38
I'll just make random choices. "At Big Sur".
John Wieners
00:04:53
Reads "At Big Sur” [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:05:12
"Louise".
John Wieners
00:05:21
Reads "Louise" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:05:48
"The Pool of Light".
John Wieners
00:05:53
Reads "The Pool of Light" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:06:14
For Mari--No, this is “For Marion".
John Wieners
00:06:19
Reads "For Marion" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:07:05
“The Mermaid Song”, forgive me for this, I thought the other poems would carry me through, but I'm reading and keeping with the mood for tonight, it seems to be more lyrical. "The Serpent's Hiss".
John Wieners
00:07:52
Reads "The Serpent's Hiss" [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:08:37
And this is called "Tuesday, 5 pm".
John Wieners
00:08:43
Reads "Tuesday, 5 pm" [published later as “Tuesday 7:00 PM” in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:10:45
I'm going to read the "The Imperatrice". Ace of Pentacles is a card in the Tarot deck, but the book should be called ‘pente’ which all the words that appeared in a hypnagogic vision, hypnagogic is the state between waking and sleeping, it's what Jung
practiced and his Marie Louise Franz would take down the things that came to him in the state between waking and sleeping and the letters ‘pente’ appeared in that state and I didn't know what they meant so I kept hunting around and I made the word 'pinnacles' out of it and somebody said why don't you call it "Ace of Pinnacles" and we made a whole thing about the Tarot deck, but that's not the title of the book. It should be ‘pente’ and that's from the Greek which is ‘wall’. And I'd like have as a fronts piece for the book William Blake's
"The Chimney Sweep"
the second version of that from the "Songs of Experience"
when he says that my mum and father have gone up to the church to pray and they make a heaven of my misery. That kind of thing. Imperatrice there's another card from the Tarot deck it's the third card of the deck.
John Wieners
00:12:09
Reads "The Imperatrice" [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:13:38
There is something else I thought I'd like to read after that one. I'll read a poem for Sylvia Plath
who was an American poet who married an English man, Ted Hughes
and had mental troubles and wrote a novel about it called The Bell Jar
under a pseudonym Victoria Lucas, so not to embarrass her mother, and then things became too much for her and I think in 1963, she did away with herself in London
, and it was a great loss, some people feel that and some do not, they feel that at least--Lowell has written an introduction to her poems posthumously printed called Ariel
and her first book was The Colossus
. But Victoria Lucas was, The Bell Jar, was, you could buy it through William Hiderman and it came down from Canada
to the United States and it's never been printed in the country. This is "The Suicide".
John Wieners
00:15:06
Reads "The Suicide" [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:16:57
Let's read some happy poems, I'm getting depressed.
Unknown
00:17:03
[Cut or edit made in tape].
John Wieners
00:17:04
Reads "Ode on a Common Fountain" [from Ace of Pentacles; recording jumps to mid-poem].
John Wieners
00:19:51
That's the first poem, I ever, I was twenty, so that was twelve years ago, that poem was written. Now I can go back--I'm still writing about Acis
and Galatea
but these are terribly sentimental and distraught, drunken poems, you can call them. Maybe we'll have one more, or is that anything from that first reading that you'd like to hear again? I'd rather not go into it. [Unknown audience member suggests poem. Title unintelligible]. Okay, that's what Spender
did say to me, he said you look like a de-frocked priest, so. Which I thought was awfully cruel, but I think I am one, my sister was a nun, I'll be a priest. Poets are priests, you know.
John Wieners
00:20:54
Reads “There are holy orders in life...” [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
END
00:21:42
Notes:
John Wieners reads from Ace of Pentacles (Carr & Wilson, 1964) as well as works published in 1985 in Selected Poems, 1958-1984 (Black Sparrow Press).
00:00- Reading “Invitation to Summer” [recording does not start at beginning of poem]
01:09- Introduces “Invitation Au Voyage” [INDEX: German Romanticism]
01:30- Reads “Invitation Au Voyage”
03:15- Introduces “Long Nook” [Howard Fink list “One Look”] [INDEX: Stuart Montgommery, Fulcrum Press, Basil Bunting]
03:44- Reads “Long Nook”
04:38- Introduces “At Big Sur”
04:53- Reads “At Big Sur”
05:12- Introduces “Louise”
05:21- Reads “Louise”
05:48- Introduces “The Pool of Light”
05:53- Reads “The Pool of Light”
06:14- Introduces “Not For Marion” [Howard Fink List “I have found her snow white in my head”]
06:19- Reads “For Marion”
07:05- Introduces “The Serpent’s Hiss”
07:52- Reads “The Serpent’s Hiss”
08:37- Introduces “Tuesday, 5 pm” [published as “Tuesday 7:00 PM”]
08:43- Reads “Tuesday, 5 pm”
10:45- Introduces “Imperatrice” [INDEX: Ace of Pentacles, Tarot, hypnogogic, Karl Yung, Marie Louise Franz, William Blake’s “The Chimney Sweep”, “Songs of Experience”]
12:09- Reads “Imperatrice”
13:38- Introduces “The Suicide” [INDEX: Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes, mental illness, The Bell Jar 1963, Ariel, The Colossus, Victoria Lucas, William Hiderman]
15:06- Reads “The Suicide”
17:04- Introduces unknown poem, mid-sentence “About your pipes and mouth...” [Howard Fink first line “In patience wait the flooding...”]
19:51- Introduces unknown poem “I was born to be a priest...” [Howard Fink first line “There are holy orders in life...] [INDEX: Asis, Galatea, Spender]
20:54- Reads unknown poem
21:24.91- END OF RECORDING
Content Type:
Sound Recording
Featured:
Yes
File Path:
My Drive>Sir George Williams TIme-Stamped Transcripts>Spokenweb Tape Case Photos taken by Drew Bernet
Title:
John Wieners Tape Box - Back
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
File Path:
My Drive>Sir George Williams TIme-Stamped Transcripts>Spokenweb Tape Case Photos taken by Drew Bernet
Title:
John Wieners Tape Box - Front
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
File Path:
My Drive>Sir George Williams TIme-Stamped Transcripts>Spokenweb Tape Case Photos taken by Drew Bernet
Title:
John Wieners Tape Box - Spine
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
File Path:
My Drive>Sir George Williams TIme-Stamped Transcripts>Spokenweb Tape Case Photos taken by Drew Bernet
Title:
John Wieners Tape Box - Reel
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Dates
Date:
1966 10 08
Type:
Performance Date
Source:
Previous researcher
LOCATION
Address:
1455, Boul de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Venue:
Hall Building Art Gallery
Latitude:
45.4972758
Longitude:
-73.57893043
CONTENT
Contents:
john_wieners_i006-11-119.mp3
John Wieners
00:00:00
Reads “Invocation to Summer” [recording begins abruptly].
John Wieners
00:01:09
"Invitation Au Voyage: II". Do you know that poem of Baudelaire's
? It's something at the end of the world. He’s speaking to his beloved, very simple. You know, lots of the German Romanticism was very simple.
John Wieners
00:01:30
Reads "Invitation Au Voyage: II".
John Wieners
00:03:15
Well let's go back to the old poems then, that have been published. Stuart Montgomery, well it doesn't matter. But that--I can send it off to England
to the Fulcrum Press
doing a lot of Basil Bunting
and the English poet of 65, resuscitated in America
again, it's about time.
John Wieners
00:03:44
Reads "Long Nook" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:04:38
I'll just make random choices. "At Big Sur".
John Wieners
00:04:53
Reads "At Big Sur” [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:05:12
"Louise".
John Wieners
00:05:21
Reads "Louise" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:05:48
"The Pool of Light".
John Wieners
00:05:53
Reads "The Pool of Light" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:06:14
For Mari--No, this is “For Marion".
John Wieners
00:06:19
Reads "For Marion" [from Ace of Pentacles].
John Wieners
00:07:05
“The Mermaid Song”, forgive me for this, I thought the other poems would carry me through, but I'm reading and keeping with the mood for tonight, it seems to be more lyrical. "The Serpent's Hiss".
John Wieners
00:07:52
Reads "The Serpent's Hiss" [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:08:37
And this is called "Tuesday, 5 pm".
John Wieners
00:08:43
Reads "Tuesday, 5 pm" [published later as “Tuesday 7:00 PM” in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:10:45
I'm going to read the "The Imperatrice". Ace of Pentacles is a card in the Tarot deck, but the book should be called ‘pente’ which all the words that appeared in a hypnagogic vision, hypnagogic is the state between waking and sleeping, it's what Jung
practiced and his Marie Louise Franz would take down the things that came to him in the state between waking and sleeping and the letters ‘pente’ appeared in that state and I didn't know what they meant so I kept hunting around and I made the word 'pinnacles' out of it and somebody said why don't you call it "Ace of Pinnacles" and we made a whole thing about the Tarot deck, but that's not the title of the book. It should be ‘pente’ and that's from the Greek which is ‘wall’. And I'd like have as a fronts piece for the book William Blake's
"The Chimney Sweep"
the second version of that from the "Songs of Experience"
when he says that my mum and father have gone up to the church to pray and they make a heaven of my misery. That kind of thing. Imperatrice there's another card from the Tarot deck it's the third card of the deck.
John Wieners
00:12:09
Reads "The Imperatrice" [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:13:38
There is something else I thought I'd like to read after that one. I'll read a poem for Sylvia Plath
who was an American poet who married an English man, Ted Hughes
and had mental troubles and wrote a novel about it called The Bell Jar
under a pseudonym Victoria Lucas, so not to embarrass her mother, and then things became too much for her and I think in 1963, she did away with herself in London
, and it was a great loss, some people feel that and some do not, they feel that at least--Lowell has written an introduction to her poems posthumously printed called Ariel
and her first book was The Colossus
. But Victoria Lucas was, The Bell Jar, was, you could buy it through William Hiderman and it came down from Canada
to the United States and it's never been printed in the country. This is "The Suicide".
John Wieners
00:15:06
Reads "The Suicide" [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
John Wieners
00:16:57
Let's read some happy poems, I'm getting depressed.
Unknown
00:17:03
[Cut or edit made in tape].
John Wieners
00:17:04
Reads "Ode on a Common Fountain" [from Ace of Pentacles; recording jumps to mid-poem].
John Wieners
00:19:51
That's the first poem, I ever, I was twenty, so that was twelve years ago, that poem was written. Now I can go back--I'm still writing about Acis
and Galatea
but these are terribly sentimental and distraught, drunken poems, you can call them. Maybe we'll have one more, or is that anything from that first reading that you'd like to hear again? I'd rather not go into it. [Unknown audience member suggests poem. Title unintelligible]. Okay, that's what Spender
did say to me, he said you look like a de-frocked priest, so. Which I thought was awfully cruel, but I think I am one, my sister was a nun, I'll be a priest. Poets are priests, you know.
John Wieners
00:20:54
Reads “There are holy orders in life...” [published later in Selected Poems, 1958-1984].
END
00:21:42
Notes:
John Wieners reads from Ace of Pentacles (Carr & Wilson, 1964) as well as works published in 1985 in Selected Poems, 1958-1984 (Black Sparrow Press).
NOTES
Type:
General
Note:
Year-Specific Information:
From 1965-67, John Wieners was at State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, either working as a graduate student or as the chair of poetics. At that time, Charles Olson left SUNY in 1966, to be replaced by Robert Creeley. Wieners’ The Journal of John Wieners Is To Be Called 707 Scott Street for Billie Holiday, 1959, was published in 1966.
Type:
General
Note:
Local Connections:
No direct connections between John Wieners and Sir George Williams University are known, however Wieners was an important poet, connected with poets from both the Black Mountain school and Beat movements.
Type:
Cataloguer
Note:
Original transcript, research, introduction and edits by Celyn Harding-Jones
Additional research and edits by Ali Barillaro.
Type:
Preservation
Note:
Reel-to-reel tape>CD>digital file (mp3)
RELATED WORKS
Citation:
Foster, Edward Halsey. "Gay Literature: Poetry and Prose". The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature. Jay Parini (ed). Oxford University Press, 2004.
Citation:
Ward, Geoff. “John Joseph Wieners, poet, Jan. 6th 1934 - March 1st 2002”. The Independent, 15 March 2000.
Citation:
Wieners, John. Ace of Pentacles. New York: Carr & Wilson, 1964
Citation:
Wieners, John. Selected Poems, 1958-1984. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1985.
Citation:
Thoms, Kathleen. “Poetry Readings Inaugurated”. The Georgian. Montreal: Sir George Williams University, 10 October 1966, p. 6.
Citation:
“Wieners, John, 1934-”. Literature Online Biography. Literature Online: ProQuest, 2009.
Citation:
“Poetry Readings”. OP-ED. Montreal: Sir George Williams University, 6 October 1967, page 6.