Charles Simic at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 19 November 1971

CLASSIFICATION

Swallow ID:

1297

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:

Charles Simic at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 19 November 1971

Title Source:

Cataloguer

Title Note:

"POETRY READING CHARLES SIMAC #1 I006/SR115.1" written on sticker on the spine of the tape's box. CHARLES SIMAC refers to Charles Simic. SIMAC is misspelled. |I006-11-115.1" written on sticker on the reel. "POETRY READING CHARLES SIMAC #2 I006/SR115.2" written on sticker on the spine of the tape's box. CHARLES SIMAC refers to Charles Simic. SIMAC is misspelled. "I006-11-115.2" written on sticker on the reel

Language:

English

Production Context:

Documentary recording

Genre:

Reading: Poetry

Persistent URL:

http://archives.concordia.ca/I086

Identifiers:

[I006-11-115.1, I006-11-115.2]

Rights

CREATORS

Name:

Simic, Charles

Dates:

1938-

URL:

http://viaf.org/viaf/22044

Role:

"Author", "Performer"

Notes:

Poet, essayist and teacher Charles Simic was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia on May 9, 1938 to Serbian parents. During his childhood, Simic witnessed both the military occupation by the Nazis during the Second World War, and then by the Soviet Union. His family left Yugoslavia for Paris in 1953, and then to Chicago in 1954. His first poem was published in the Chicago Review in 1959 when Simic was 19 years old. In 1961, Simic was enlisted in the US Army, and served until 1963 when he moved to New York City and enrolled in New York University. Simic met his future wife, designer Helene Dubin, with whom he had two children. Upon graduation with a B.A. in Russian in 1966, he worked as an editorial assistant for Aperture, a photography magazine. Simic’s first collection of poems, What the Grass Says (Kayak) was published in 1967 and was followed in 1969 with Somewhere Among Us a Stone Is Taking Notes (Kayak), and a number of anthologies, including Young American Poets (Follett Publishing Co, 1968), Contemporary American Poets (World Publishing Company, 1969), and Major Young American Poets (World Publishing Co, 1971). In 1970, Simic began teaching English at the University of California at Hayward, and earned a PEN International Award for his translation of Fire Gardens (New Rivers Press), written by Ivan V. Lalic. At that time, Simic also published an anthology of translations Four Modern Yugoslav Poets: Ivan V. Lalic, Branko Miljkovic, Milorad Pavic, Ljubomir Simovic, translations of Vasko Popa’s The Little Box (Charioteer Press, 1970) and his own collection of poetry, Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971). Simic then received a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, published White (New Rivers Press, 1972) and took a position of associate professor at the University of New Hampshire in 1973, which he would hold for over thirty years. A wildly prolific writer, Simic published poetry, translations and non-fiction, including Charon’s Cosmology (G. Braziller, 1977) which won the National Book Award, School for Dark Thoughts (Banyan Press, 1978), Classic Ballroom Dances (G. Braziller, 1980) which won both the Harriet Monroe Poetry Award and the Di Castagnola Award, Austerities (G. Braziller, 1982), Weather Forecast for Utopia and Vicinity (Station Hill Press, 1983), Unending Blues (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1986), Brooms: Selected Poems (Edge, 1978), Selected Poems 1963-1983 (G. Braziller, 1985), The World Doesn’t End (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989) which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1990, The Book of Gods and Devils (Harcourt Brace, 1990) and Hotel Insomnia (Harcourt, 1992). The 1990s saw Simic publishing numerous translations from Yugoslavian poets. Collections of Simic’s essays and memoirs include The Unemployed Fortune-Teller (Michigan Press, 1994), Orphan Factory (University of Michigan, 1997), Walking the Black Cat (Harcourt Brace & Co, 1996) and his more recent poetry collection The Voice at 3:00 am: Selected Late and New Poems (A.W. Ellsworth, 2003). In 2007, Simic was appointed U.S. Poet Laureate. Simic resides in Strafford, New Hampshire.

CONTRIBUTORS

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

Recording Type:

Analogue

AV Type:

Audio

Material Designation:

Reel to Reel

Physical Composition:

Magnetic Tape

Extent:

1/4 inch

Playback Mode:

Mono

Sound Quality:

Good

DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION

File URL:

https://files.spokenweb.ca/concordia/sgw/audio/all_mp3/charles_simic_i006-11-115-1.mp3

Show Content

File Path:

files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3

Duration:

00:36:39

Size:

88 MB

Content:

charles_simic_i006-11-115-1.mp3 [File 1 of 2] Introducer 00:00:05 A short quotation which appears in the Contributors' Notes to Paul Carroll's anthology The Young American Poets. Quote: “As far back as I can remember there was a kind of dumbness within me, a need that sought expression. How it eventually materialized in the act of writing a poem belongs to a biography which I have only been able to recount in a few successful poems. As for the finished product, the poem, my need requires it to be of, as Whitman said, the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, and further, if they are not yours as much as mine, they are nothing, or next to nothing. On a subjective level, I write to give being to that vibration which is my life, and to survive in a hard time”. Charles Simic . Charles Simic 00:00:57 Thank you. Is this mic also for the audience or just for the tape? Oh it is, okay. I'll be reading mostly from my third book, including also some more recent poems. And I'll start off with a very recent poem which is called "Breasts". Charles Simic 00:02:07 Reads "Breasts" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:05:05 This is not from the book. A series of poems really dealing with inanimate objects. And the first poem in the series is called "Table". Charles Simic 00:05:27 Reads "Table" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:06:55 Reads "Stone" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:08:14 There's a poem about a fork, and also a poem about a spoon and knife, and I'll read "The Fork". Charles Simic 00:08:26 Reads "The Fork" Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:09:12 Reads "My Shoes" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:10:42 The last one of these has not been included in the book. I only discovered it about a year ago, in a notebook, but it was written around the same time, and I've sort of been fooling around with it. It's called "Brooms". There's five parts. I'll just make a little pause within each part. Charles Simic 00:11:13 Reads "Brooms", Part I [published later in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk]. Charles Simic 00:11:43 Reads "Brooms", Part II [published later in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk]. Charles Simic 00:12:41 Reads "Brooms", Part III [published later in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk]. Charles Simic 00:13:24 Reads "Brooms", Part IV [published later in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk]. Charles Simic 00:14:06 Reads "Brooms", Part V [published later in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk]. Charles Simic 00:14:55 I'll read you the last poem of, in the book of this particular series, which really has nothing to do with objects, but it's a poem in which I imagine what would happen if someone really penetrated one of these inanimate objects, like his pores, kind of a Christopher Columbus of entering an ashtray or something. It's called "Explorers". Charles Simic 00:15:33 Reads "Explorers" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:17:13 Let's see. This is, this is called "The Inner Man". Charles Simic 00:17:40 Reads "The Inner Man" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:19:06 This poem, this next poem is called "The Animals". I wrote it in New York City , after living in New York City for about five-six years, and lamenting the pastoral quality of my first book, and my inability to return to that kind of nature poetry. I realized that I hadn't seen a tree or an animal in about three or four years, and yet at the same time writing, you know, occasionally about some cows, or, you know, and I was saying, what are these animals, you know, these shadowy animals. Anyway, here's the poem. "The Animals". Charles Simic 00:19:46 Reads "The Animals" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:21:07 Let's see. Sort of change to some different kinds of poems. Here's a poem about Chicago . Going back to Chicago. And, to see my mother. And...it's all there anyway. Hopefully. There's seven parts. Charles Simic 00:22:03 Reads "Chicago", Part I. Charles Simic 00:22:43 Reads "Chicago", Part II. Charles Simic 00:23:17 Reads "Chicago", Part III. Charles Simic 00:23:57 Reads "Chicago", Part IV. Charles Simic 00:24:35 Reads "Chicago", Part V. Charles Simic 00:25:06 Reads "Chicago", Part VI. Charles Simic 00:25:33 Reads "Chicago", Part VII. Charles Simic 00:26:39 Let's see. I can't find it. Maybe it's not written yet. Oh here it is, yeah. Charles Simic 00:27:01 Reads "Tapestry" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:28:15 This is a very different kind of poem. The material for the the poem is, are, cliches, working with, with awful cliches, things which were totally beaten to death and, you know, can't be used anymore. Or proverbs, popular wisdom, and I'm twisting it all around, trying to reverse the kind of universe that is implied by, by let's say proverbs, if you get up in the morning and such and such a thing happens. There is something very deterministic about it, and to reverse that, to give it a little fresh air, I'll turn it around. And so I have a sequence of six poems which are entirely made up of these things, and they're called, the common title is "Concerning my Neighbors, the Hittites", and the...why the Hittites ...why not? [Laughter]. Hittites were simply something that I had not the slightest idea about and I sort of saw ourselves one day becoming the Hittites, you know, somebody sitting one day in some future century and, our century being, sort of the Hittites, you know. And so there are six poems, and, I guess that's about all to be said. Charles Simic 00:29:58 Reads "Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites", Part I [published later in Selected Early Poems]. Charles Simic 00:31:21 Reads "Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites", Part II [published later in Selected Early Poems]. Unknown 00:32:09 Silence [pause]. Charles Simic 00:33:20 Reads "Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites", Part III [published later in Selected Early Poems]. Charles Simic 00:34:20 Reads "Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites", Part IV [ [published later in Selected Early Poems; includes extra stanzas not included in the published version of the poem]. Charles Simic 00:35:12 Reads "Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites", Part V [published later in Selected Early Poems]. Charles Simic 00:36:14 Reads "Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites", Part VI [published later in Selected Early Poems]. Charles Simic 00:36:23 Do you, we need a break? Should we take a break? Huh? No, yes. No. Take a break. Yeah, let's take a ten-minute break. Audience 00:36:30 Applause [cut off]. END 00:36:39

Notes:

Charles Simic reads mostly from Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971) as well as a selection of, at the time, new and unpublished poems from a notebook that would later be published in Return to a Place Lit by a Glass of Milk (G. Braziller, 1974) and Selected Early Poems (G. Braziller, 1999). 00:00- Unknown introducer introduces Charles Simic. [INDEX: quotation from the Contributor's notes to Paul Carroll’s anthology, The Young American Poets, Walt Whitman.] 00:57- Charles Simic introduces reading, and “Breasts”. [INDEX: reading from his third book (Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)), as well as recent poems; this poem published in 1974 in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk (G. Braziller, 1974).] 02:07- Reads “Breasts”. 05:05- Introduces “Table”. [INDEX: not from the book Dismantling the Silence, dealing with inanimate objects.] 05:27- Reads “Table”. 06:55- Reads “Stone”. [INDEX: from Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)] 08:14- Introduces “The Fork”. [INDEX: poem about a spoon and a knife] 08:26- Reads “The Fork”. [INDEX: most likely in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)] 09:12- Reads “My Shoes”. [INDEX: most likely in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)] 10:42- Introduces “Brooms”, parts I-V. [INDEX: written in a notebook, not included in published book with others; published in 1974 in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk (G. Braziller, 1974).] 11:13- Reads “Brooms” Part I. 11:43- Reads “Brooms” Part II. 12:41- Reads “Brooms” Part III. 13:24- Reads “Brooms” Part IV. 14:06- Reads “Brooms” Part V. 14:55- Introduces “Explorers” [INDEX: last poem in book of particular series, Christopher Columbus entering an ashtray.] 15:33- Reads “Explorers”. [INDEX: most likely in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)] 17:13- Reads “The Inner Man”. [INDEX: most likely in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)] 19:06- Introduces “The Animals”. [INDEX: written in NYC, pastoral quality of first book, inability to return to nature poetry, pastoral animals.] 19:46- Reads “The Animals”. [INDEX: in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971).] 21:07- Introduces “Chicago”, parts I-VII. [INDEX: about going back to Chicago, Simic’s mother, perhaps not in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971).] 22:03- Reads “Chicago” Part I. 22:43- Reads “Chicago” Part II. 23:17- Reads “Chicago” Part III. 23:57- Reads “Chicago” Part IV. 24:35- Reads “Chicago” Part V. 25:06- Reads “Chicago” Part VI. 25:33- Reads “Chicago” Part VII. 27:01- Reads “Tapestry”. [INDEX: most likely in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)] 28:15- Introduces “Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites”, Parts I-VI. [INDEX: writing with cliches, proverbs, popular wisdom to twist them around, Hittites.] 29:58- Reads “Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites” Part I. 31:21- Reads “Concerning My Neighbors, the Hittites” Part II. 33:20- Reading interrupted by pause, either Part II is continued or part III begins. [INDEX: discrepancies between published versions and the reading are noted here.] 34:20- Reads “Concerning my Neighbors, the Hittites” Part IV. 35:12- Reads “Concerning my Neighbors, the Hittites” Part V. 36:14- Reads “Concerning my Neighbors, the Hittites” Part VI. 36:39- Introduces “Marching”. [INDEX: Ksemi Rothers, Simic’s ancestors, Balkan wars, most likely in Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971).] 37:27- Reads “Marching”. 40:08- Introduces “Elegy for my father” [INDEX: elegy for Simic’s father, seven parts; published in 1974 as “George Simic” in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk (G. Braziller, 1974).] 40:27- Reads “Elegy for my father”. 44:24- Introduces “Return to a place lit by a glass of milk”. [INDEX: love poem, might use title for title of new book.] 44:47- Reads “Return to a place lit by a glass of milk”. [INDEX: published in 1974 in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk (G. Braziller, 1974)] 46:34- Reads “Dismantling the Silence”. [INDEX: from Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971)] 47:57- Introduces “Errata”. [INDEX: after finishing a book felt a sense of frustration of not being able to say everything, each line refers to actual lines in the book.] 48:33- Reads “Errata”. 50:15- Unknown speaker announces next reading [Dorothy Livesay on January 14.] 50:24.10- END OF RECORDING.

Content Type:

Sound Recording

File URL:

https://files.spokenweb.ca/concordia/sgw/audio/all_mp3/charles_simic_i006-11-115-2.mp3

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Duration:

00:13:44

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charles_simic_i006-11-115-2.mp3 [File 2 of 2] Charles Simic 00:00:00 I was asking [Ksemi Rothers (?)] about, you know, who are my great grand-uncles, and great-grandfathers and so on, and I found out that they all were killed or disappeared in some completely forgotten nineteenth-century Balkan wars which no one knows anymore the cause or the reason or why they were started. And so this poem kind of happened out of that. It's called "Marching". Charles Simic 00:00:47 Reads "Marching" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:03:28 This is a kind of a, you could say that it's sort of an elegy for my father, in seven parts. Charles Simic 00:03:47 Reads “George Simic” [published later in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk]. Charles Simic 00:07:44 This is a love poem. I have a series of love poems in the new book but this is one of them. And I might use the title of this poem as the title of the new book. The title is "Return to a place lit by a glass of milk". Charles Simic 00:08:08 Reads "Return to a place lit by a glass of milk" [published later in Return to a place lit by a glass of milk]. Charles Simic 00:09:20 I want to read a couple more poems now. "Dismantling the Silence". Charles Simicn 00:09:54 Reads "Dismantling the Silence" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:11:17 The last poem in this book is called "Errata" for the good reason that after I finished the book I felt again, you know, a sense of frustration. I didn't say everything. And so each of the lines in this particular poem are really, refer to actual lines in the book. I'm kind of correcting myself. "Errata". Charles Simic 00:11:53 Reads "Errata" from Dismantling the Silence. Charles Simic 00:13:20 Thank you. Audience 00:13:23 Applause. Introducer 00:13:35 The next reading will be on January 14th. Dorothy Livesay will read that night. END 00:13:44

Notes:

Content Type:

Sound Recording

File URL:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-0cAe1GF8xZsc62jpUDXwgvyCd6ZmvSw

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Title:

Charles Simic Tape Box 1 - Back

Credit:

Drew Bernet

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Photograph

File URL:

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Title:

Charles Simic Tape Box 1 - Front

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

File URL:

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Title:

Charles Simic Tape Box 1 - Spine

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Drew Bernet

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Photograph

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Charles Simic Tape Box 1 - Reel

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Drew Bernet

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Photograph

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Title:

Charles Simic Tape Box 2 - Back

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

File URL:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-0cAe1GF8xZsc62jpUDXwgvyCd6ZmvSw

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Title:

Charles Simic Tape Box 2 - Front

Credit:

Drew Bernet

Content Type:

Photograph

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Charles Simic Tape Box 2 - Spine

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Drew Bernet

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Charles Simic Tape Box 2 - Reel

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Dates

Date:

1971 11 19

Type:

Performance Date

Source:

Previous recording

Notes:

Date specified by Richard Somner in I006-11-106.4

LOCATION

Address:

1455, Boul de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Venue:

Hall Building Room H-651

Latitude:

45.4972758

Longitude:

-73.57893043

URL:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/22080570

Notes:

Previous researcher

CONTENT

Contents:

Notes:

NOTES

Type:

General

Note:

Year-Specific Information: In 1971, Simic was teaching at the University of California at Hayward, and had published his third book, Dismantling the Silence (G. Braziller, 1971).

Type:

General

Note:

Local Connections: Any specific connections Simic had with Montreal or Sir George Williams University are unknown at this point, but Simic was an important and influential figure in American poetry, which no doubt had an impact on Canadian writers.

Type:

Cataloguer

Note:

Original transcript by Rachel Kyne Original print catalogue, introduction, research and edits by Celyn Harding-Jones Additional research and edits by Ali Barillaro

Type:

Preservation

Note:

2 reel-to-reel tapes>CD>2 digital files