CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
1277
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:
Robin Blaser at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 28 March 1969
Title Source:
Cataloguer
Title Note:
"Robin Blaser Mar. 28/69 1" written on sticker on the reel
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Genre:
Reading: Poetry
Identifiers:
[]
Rights
CREATORS
Name:
Blaser, Robin
Dates:
1925-2009
Role:
"Author",
"Performer"
Notes:
Poet, essayist and professor Robin Blaser was born on May 18, 1925 in Denver, Colorado, but spent most of his early years in rural Idaho. He moved to California where he received his B.A. in 1952, his M.A. in 1955 and a M.L.S. in 1956 from the University of California at Berkeley. Here he met poets Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, the three playing major roles in the San Francisco Poetry Renaissance. Blaser, however, next to the dominant figures of Spicer and Duncan, was hesitant to identify himself as a poet and only began publishing his poetry close to twenty years later despite the fact that he was writing poetry already. His work appeared in smaller presses and received restricted attention because of this. After graduating from Berkley, Blaser worked at a number of libraries across the country, including the Widener Library in Boston where he met other East Coast poets, such as Charles Olson and John Wieners. His first larger publication was The Moth Poem (Open Space, 1964). In 1966, he moved to Vancouver, to teach at the Simon Fraser University, and became a Canadian Citizen in 1974. There, Blaser became a strong mentor and influence on the younger poets of the emerging Vancouver Poetry scene of the 60’s, influencing Daphne Marlatt, bp Nichol, Erin Mouré, and Steve McCaffery. His next collections of poetry followed, with Cups (Four Seasons Foundation, 1968), Image Nations 1-12; and The Stadium of the Mirror (Ferry Press, 1974), Image Nations 13 &14 (Cobblestone Press, 1975), Image Nation 15: The Lacquerhouse (W. Hoffer, 1981), Syntax (Talonbooks, 1983) and his most popular publication nominated for a Governor General’s Award, The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993). Blaser was also an essayist, and published important essays such as “The Fire” (1967), “The Violets: Charles Olson and Alfred North Whitehead” (1983), “Robert Duncan, The ‘Elf’ of It” (1992), “The Recovery of the Public World” (1993), “Preface to the Early Poems of Robert Duncan” (1995), most of which are collected in The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser (University of California Press, 2006). Blaser became a Professor of Emeritus at Simon Fraser University and retired in 1986. Blaser was honoured the Order of Canada in 2005, and the Griffin Poetry prize for lifetime achievement in 2006, the Griffin Prize for poetry in 2008, as well as an honourary doctorate by Simon Fraser University in March 2009. After a battle with cancer, Robin Blaser died in Vancouver on May 7th, 2009.
CONTRIBUTORS
Name:
Kiyooka, Roy
Dates:
1926-1994
Role:
"Series organizer",
"Presenter"
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Reel to Reel
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/4 inch
Playback Mode:
Mono
Tape Brand:
Scotch
Sound Quality:
Good
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
File Path:
files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3
Duration:
01:05:30
Size:
157.2 MB
Content:
Roy Kiyooka
00:00:00
It's my pleasure this evening to introduce to you Robin Blaser
, recently of Vancouver
, and a little bit before that, from San Francisco
and elsewhere. Can you hear me? Can you all hear me? Okay. Well, I haven't really a great deal to say, I wanted to say simply that I met Robin Blaser in June of 1964, the occasion was the usual round of parties and a rather un-memorable reading, and a marvelous day out into the countryside, and I also had on that occasion the pleasure of meeting two very close friends of his, Stan Persky
and Jack Spicer
. I'll read you this little sort of resume of his career. He was born in Idaho
, and he studied at Northwestern
and Berkeley
, and was a librarian at Harvard
from 1955 to '59. He now teaches in exile at Simon Fraser University
, has made an important contribution to the San Francisco poetry renaissance in the '50's and the '60's, and was one of a triumvirate, with Duncan
and Spicer, that fulminated the serial poem on the poetry scene. Among his own serial poems are “The Faerie Queene” and “Image-Nation”. His verse has been published in a number of contemporary poetry anthologies. They include, among many, Donald Allen's
The New American Poetry
, the Penguin
New Writing in the United States, and A Controversy of Poets. And among his volumes of poetry are The Boston Poems 1956-58, The Moth Poem, Les Chimeres, and Cups. He is the editor of a West Coast magazine called the Pacific Nation. Now, Robin? Please read for us.
Audience
00:02:56
Applause.
Robin Blaser
00:03:00
The marvelous thing about that list of books is that The Boston Poems, in fact, I think I will read one of those, was published and I decided I didn't like the book so there's one copy in the world and I own that copy. So I'm not sure it's fair, to call that a book. I don't think I--but I think I will read, open with that, it now dates back so many years, back to the Boston
world, when [Jack] Spicer, and [John] Wieners
and I were there together, and a very different scene from anything. [Charles] Olson
was at Black Mountain
, and Wieners in the centre at Boston. This poem is "The Hunger of Sound", and the date of it would be 1956.
Robin Blaser
00:03:54
Reads "The Hunger of Sound" from The Boston Poems [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:10:38
Now I, I'm a little confused because I've changed the reading now because it was very nice to have people ask for things, so I think I'll read "Cups", which is a...I've worked since 1960 on a book called The Holy Forest and that is composed of several serial poems, the first of which is "Cups", and that is followed by one called "The Park", and one called "The Faerie Queen", then "The Moth Poem", and then the, then there is a group, translated from Gérard de Nerval
, "Les Chimeres", which is also a serial poem, and finally a group called "The Holy Forest", an unfinished group, and I thought I would read "Cups" and then a section, do a little thing on my poetics, an intermission, and then read, if you still are with me, the section I've just finished, called "The Holy Forest". This is "Cups".
Robin Blaser
00:11:47
Reads "Cups" [from Cups].
Robin Blaser
00:22:58
Now I'm going to move to my essay called "The Fire", which is meant to, is meant to talk about what people call poetics, I guess. It certainly talks about what I intend to do, what I am doing.
Robin Blaser
00:23:28
Reads "The Fire" [published later in The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser].
Unknown
00:31:57
[Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed].
Robin Blaser
00:31:58
Resumes reading "The Fire".
Robin Blaser
00:43:29
I won't go on to the rest of the essay, I think that's enough. Now...should we have a break, for a minute? Is it the right time for a break? Do you want a break? Because the next section has thirty-two poems, and not great long ones, but it's a move through the...
Unknown
00:43:57
[Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed].
Robin Blaser
00:43:58
Reads “In A Dark” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:44:17
Reads “The Prints” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:44:47
Reads “Love” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:45:18
Reads "The Private I" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:46:18
Reads "Song" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:46:52
Reads "Translation" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:47:23
Reads "1st Tale: Over" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:48:09
Reads "2nd Tale: Returned" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:49:48
Reads ": At Last" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:50:29
Reads "Aphrodite of the Leaves" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:51:02
Reads "Winter Words" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:51:39
Reads "The Stories" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:52:23
Reads "The City" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:53:12
Reads "The Translator: A Tale" [from The Moth Poem].
Robin Blaser
00:54:31
Reads [“Sophia Nichols,” published later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:56:34
Reads "A Gift: Homage to Creeley" [published later as “A Gift” in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:57:30
Reads "Bottom's Dream" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:58:18
Reads "The Finder” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:59:35
Reads "Out of the Window," [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
01:00:45
Reads "Merlin" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
01:01:44
Reads "The Cry of Merlin" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Unknown
01:03:55
[Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed].
Robin Blaser
01:03:57
I stood between the two in the marriage ceremony and replaced the psalms that are given, at one point, that was my gift as well as my blessing, and this is the poem I wrote for that wedding. "Image-Nation 6: a marriage poem for Gladys Hindmarch and Cliff Anston".
Robin Blaser
1:04:15
Reads "Image-Nation 6: a marriage poem for Gladys Hindmarch and Cliff Anston" [published later as “Image-Nation 6 (epithalamium)” in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
01:05:27
Thank you.
Audience
01:05:28
Applause [cut off].
END
01:05:30
[Cut off abruptly].
Notes:
Robin Blaser reads poems from Cups (Four Seasons Press, 1968), The Moth Poem (Open Space, 1964) and his essay “The Fire”, collected later in The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser (University of California Press, 2006), as well as poems collected later in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).
00:00- Stanton Hoffman introduces Robin Blaser [INDEX: Vancouver, San Francisco, June 1964, meeting, reading, countryside, Stan Persky, Jack Spicer, Idaho, Northwestern University, Berkeley University, librarian at Harvard from 1955-59, exile, teaches, Simon Fraser University, San Francisco Poetry Renaissance in the 1950’s and 1960’s, triumvirate with Robert Duncan and Jack Spicer, serial poem, “The Faerie Queene”, “Image Nation”, poetry anthologies, Donald Allen’s The New American Poetry (Grove Press, 1960), The Penguin New Writing [most likely Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus, 1960 or 1970], A controversy of poets (Doubleday/ Anchor Books, 1965), poetry volumes The Boston Poems 1956-58 (self published?), The Moth Poem (Open Space, 1964), Les Chimeres (White Rabbit Press, 1965), Cups (Four Seasons Foundation, 1968), editor of The Pacific Nation.]
03:00- Robin Blaser introduces “The Hunger of Sound”. [INDEX: The Boston Poems, one copy in the world, dislike for the book, Boston, Jack Spicer, John Wieners, Charles Olson, Black Mountain, 1956; from The Boston Poems (unknown publishing info) later collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
03:54- Reads “The Hunger of Sound” [INDEX: serial poem, poetry, child, image, star, hunger, tree, time, sound, poem, man, wife, house, boy, Dante, book, German, gun, work, chaos, joy.]
10:38- Introduces “Cups”. [INDEX: order of reading, requested poems, working The Holy Forest since 1960, serial poems, “The Park”, “The Faerie Queene”, “The Moth Poem”, translations from Gerard de Nerval “Les Chimeres”, The Holy Forest as unfinished, poetics, intermission; from Cups (Four Seasons Foundation, 1968).]
11:47- Reads “Cups”. [INDEX: serial poem, cup, nature, iris, flower, tree, poem, poetry, window, sex, Dante, love, spring, truck, goat, father, hunter, blood, dark, semen, skin, whistle, sound]
22:58- Introduces essay “The Fire”. [INDEX: poetics; written in 1967, collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993)]
23:28- Reads essay “The Fire”. [INDEX: poetry, poetics, sight, sound, intellect, Louis Zukofsky, San Francisco, invisibility, emotion, body, earth, god, reality, conceptual, difficulty, image, conceptual, [Stan] Persky, imagination, language, Charles Olson, [Thoreau’s?] Walden, [Herman] Melville, [Ezra] Pound, narrative, Jack Spicer, Ovid]
31:57- END OF RECORDING (mid-sentence, continues on next CD I086-11-005.2)
00:00- Robin Blaser continues reading “The Fire” essay. [INDEX: family, idiom, English, American, French, Orphic, Orpheus, Dionysus, Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, imagery, Leibniz, Spinoza, Francis Yeats, monads, Nerval; written in 1967, collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
11:31- Robin Blaser stops reading essay, introduces intermission [INDEX: break, next section, thirty-two poems, not long poems]
12:00- Cut in tape, unknown amount of time elapsed
12:00- Robin Blaser reads line “...the drive to the spring mountains...” recording starts mid-poem [INDEX: nature, drive, tree, heart, love, stone, song, star, forest, fire, night, translation; from unknown source.]
12:20- Reads “The Prints”. [INDEX: Nerval, prince, tree, fantasy, heart; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
12:50- Reads “Love”. [INDEX: water, love, night; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
13:21- Reads “The Private I” [IMAGE: dog, moon, wind, white, black, earth, water, wind; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
14:21- Reads "Song" [INDEX: Nerval, song, night, horse; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
14:55- Reads "Translation" [INDEX: ash, Mount St. Helen's, fire, tree; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
15:26- Reads "1st Tale, Lost" [INDEX: sweet, child, tale, bird, sound; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
16:11- Reads "2nd Tale, Returned" [INDEX: brother, sister, child, fear, story, water, love, magic, air, found; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
17:50- Reads ":At Last" [INDEX: place, tree, story, youth, body; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
18:32- Reads "Aphrodite of the Leaves" [INDEX: city, light, Aphrodite, place from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
19:05- Reads "Winter Words" [INDEX: fountain, silence, cold, invisible; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993)]
19:42- Reads "The Stories" [INDEX: table, supper, sound, imagination, taste, radio from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
20:25- Reads "The City" [INDEX: lover, city, Wandering Jew, voice, water, radio, light, fountain from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
21:15- Reads "The Translator: A Tale" [INDEX: water, circle, tale, translation, shadow, sex, moth, flight; from The Moth Poem (Open Space, 1964).]
22:34- Reads unknown poem first line ["...and returns, it is easy to personify"] [INDEX: head, personification, woman, love, disease, nature, moon, Blake, star, city, place, Odyssey, story, night, word]
24:37- Reads "A Gift: Homage to Creeley" [INDEX: room, house, table, soul, city, language, Wells Fargo, poet, love; published as “A Gift”, from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
25:33- Reads "Bottom's Dream" [INDEX: Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom, solitude, translation, city, love, glass; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
26:21- Reads "The Finder" [INDEX: tree, window, English Bay, Vancouver, ship, body, blood, intellect, violence, death, glass; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
27:37- Reads "Out of the Window" [INDEX: nature, earth, sea, fire, heart, city, building, loss, invisible; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
28:48- Reads "Merlin" [INDEX: action, blackbird, glass, companion, house, window, tree, unity, poetry, city, future, movement; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
29:47- Reads "The Cry of Merlin" (unfinished reading on recording) [INDEX: stone, blue, spiritual, image, man, room, story, sea, sex, body, love, radio, Daphne; from Charms (1964-1968) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).]
31:58- Break/distortion in tape; recording recommences mid-phrase as Blaser introduces his last work.
32:00- Introduces “Image Nation 6: a marriage poem for Gladys Hindmarch and Cliff Anston” [INDEX: marriage ceremony, psalms, gift, blessing, wedding, Gladys Hindmarch, Cliff Anston; published in Image Nations 5-14 (1967- 1974) collected in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993)]
32:18- Reads “Image Nation 6: a marriage poem for Gladys Hindmarch and Cliff Anston” [INDEX: marriage, tree, Gladys Hindmarch, Cliff Anston, vision, gift, occasional poem, ring, unity, image, invisible.]
33:30- Robin Blaser thanks audience.
33:33.03- END OF RECORDING.
Content Type:
Sound Recording
Featured:
Yes
Title:
Robin Blaser Tape Box - Back
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
Robin Blaser Tape Box - Front
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
Robin Blaser Tape Box - Spine
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Title:
Robin Blaser Tape Box - Reel
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
Dates
Date:
1969 3 28
Type:
Performance Date
Source:
Accompanying Material
Notes:
Date written on sticker on the reel
LOCATION
Address:
1455, Boul de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Venue:
Hall Building
Latitude:
45.4972758
Longitude:
-73.57893043
Notes:
Exact venue location unknown
CONTENT
Contents:
robin_blaser_i086-11-005.mp3
Roy Kiyooka
00:00:00
It's my pleasure this evening to introduce to you Robin Blaser
, recently of Vancouver
, and a little bit before that, from San Francisco
and elsewhere. Can you hear me? Can you all hear me? Okay. Well, I haven't really a great deal to say, I wanted to say simply that I met Robin Blaser in June of 1964, the occasion was the usual round of parties and a rather un-memorable reading, and a marvelous day out into the countryside, and I also had on that occasion the pleasure of meeting two very close friends of his, Stan Persky
and Jack Spicer
. I'll read you this little sort of resume of his career. He was born in Idaho
, and he studied at Northwestern
and Berkeley
, and was a librarian at Harvard
from 1955 to '59. He now teaches in exile at Simon Fraser University
, has made an important contribution to the San Francisco poetry renaissance in the '50's and the '60's, and was one of a triumvirate, with Duncan
and Spicer, that fulminated the serial poem on the poetry scene. Among his own serial poems are “The Faerie Queene” and “Image-Nation”. His verse has been published in a number of contemporary poetry anthologies. They include, among many, Donald Allen's
The New American Poetry
, the Penguin
New Writing in the United States, and A Controversy of Poets. And among his volumes of poetry are The Boston Poems 1956-58, The Moth Poem, Les Chimeres, and Cups. He is the editor of a West Coast magazine called the Pacific Nation. Now, Robin? Please read for us.
Audience
00:02:56
Applause.
Robin Blaser
00:03:00
The marvelous thing about that list of books is that The Boston Poems, in fact, I think I will read one of those, was published and I decided I didn't like the book so there's one copy in the world and I own that copy. So I'm not sure it's fair, to call that a book. I don't think I--but I think I will read, open with that, it now dates back so many years, back to the Boston
world, when [Jack] Spicer, and [John] Wieners
and I were there together, and a very different scene from anything. [Charles] Olson
was at Black Mountain
, and Wieners in the centre at Boston. This poem is "The Hunger of Sound", and the date of it would be 1956.
Robin Blaser
00:03:54
Reads "The Hunger of Sound" from The Boston Poems [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:10:38
Now I, I'm a little confused because I've changed the reading now because it was very nice to have people ask for things, so I think I'll read "Cups", which is a...I've worked since 1960 on a book called The Holy Forest and that is composed of several serial poems, the first of which is "Cups", and that is followed by one called "The Park", and one called "The Faerie Queen", then "The Moth Poem", and then the, then there is a group, translated from Gérard de Nerval
, "Les Chimeres", which is also a serial poem, and finally a group called "The Holy Forest", an unfinished group, and I thought I would read "Cups" and then a section, do a little thing on my poetics, an intermission, and then read, if you still are with me, the section I've just finished, called "The Holy Forest". This is "Cups".
Robin Blaser
00:11:47
Reads "Cups" [from Cups].
Robin Blaser
00:22:58
Now I'm going to move to my essay called "The Fire", which is meant to, is meant to talk about what people call poetics, I guess. It certainly talks about what I intend to do, what I am doing.
Robin Blaser
00:23:28
Reads "The Fire" [published later in The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser].
Unknown
00:31:57
[Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed].
Robin Blaser
00:31:58
Resumes reading "The Fire".
Robin Blaser
00:43:29
I won't go on to the rest of the essay, I think that's enough. Now...should we have a break, for a minute? Is it the right time for a break? Do you want a break? Because the next section has thirty-two poems, and not great long ones, but it's a move through the...
Unknown
00:43:57
[Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed].
Robin Blaser
00:43:58
Reads “In A Dark” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:44:17
Reads “The Prints” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:44:47
Reads “Love” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:45:18
Reads "The Private I" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:46:18
Reads "Song" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:46:52
Reads "Translation" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:47:23
Reads "1st Tale: Over" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:48:09
Reads "2nd Tale: Returned" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:49:48
Reads ": At Last" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:50:29
Reads "Aphrodite of the Leaves" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:51:02
Reads "Winter Words" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:51:39
Reads "The Stories" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:52:23
Reads "The City" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:53:12
Reads "The Translator: A Tale" [from The Moth Poem].
Robin Blaser
00:54:31
Reads [“Sophia Nichols,” published later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:56:34
Reads "A Gift: Homage to Creeley" [published later as “A Gift” in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:57:30
Reads "Bottom's Dream" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:58:18
Reads "The Finder” [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
00:59:35
Reads "Out of the Window," [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
01:00:45
Reads "Merlin" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
01:01:44
Reads "The Cry of Merlin" [collected later in The Holy Forest].
Unknown
01:03:55
[Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed].
Robin Blaser
01:03:57
I stood between the two in the marriage ceremony and replaced the psalms that are given, at one point, that was my gift as well as my blessing, and this is the poem I wrote for that wedding. "Image-Nation 6: a marriage poem for Gladys Hindmarch and Cliff Anston".
Robin Blaser
1:04:15
Reads "Image-Nation 6: a marriage poem for Gladys Hindmarch and Cliff Anston" [published later as “Image-Nation 6 (epithalamium)” in The Holy Forest].
Robin Blaser
01:05:27
Thank you.
Audience
01:05:28
Applause [cut off].
END
01:05:30
[Cut off abruptly].
Notes:
Robin Blaser reads poems from Cups (Four Seasons Press, 1968), The Moth Poem (Open Space, 1964) and his essay “The Fire”, collected later in The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser (University of California Press, 2006), as well as poems collected later in The Holy Forest (Coach House Press, 1993).
NOTES
Type:
General
Note:
Year-Specific Information:
This reading most likely took place in 1969. Blaser was teaching at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and was most likely working on Image Nations 1-12; and The Stadium of the Mirror which was published much later in 1974.
Type:
General
Note:
Local Connections:
As stated in the introduction of this reading, Robin Blaser was an important poet involved in the San Francisco Renaissance of the 1960’s, but was connected to other important poets like Robert Duncan, Jack Spicer, and Stan Persky among many others. Stanton Hoffman, a Sir George Williams University English Professor and Reading Committee Member met Robin Blaser in 1964 in Vancouver, where Blaser was teaching. He no doubt met with George Bowering at the same time.
Type:
Preservation
Note:
Reel-to-reel tape>2 CDs>digital file
Type:
Cataloguer
Note:
Original transcript, research, introduction and edits by Celyn Harding-Jones
Additional research and edits by Ali Barillaro
RELATED WORKS
Citation:
Blaser, Robin. Cups. San Francisco: Four Seasons Press, 1968.
Citation:
Blaser, Robin. The Holy Forest. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1993.
Citation:
Blaser, Robin. The Fire: Collected Essays of Robin Blaser. Miriam Nichols (ed). Berkley: University of California Press, 2006.
Citation:
Bowering, George, ed. The Contemporary Canadian Poem Anthology. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1984.
Citation:
Thesen, Sharon. “Blaser, Robin”. The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Eugene Benson and William Toye (eds). Oxford University Press, 2001.
Citation:
“Blaser- Robin Francis, 1925-2009”. The Vancouver Sun. Saturday, May 9, 2009. Page F14.
Citation:
“Blaser, Robin”. Literature Online Biography. Proquest Inc, 2008.