#grahhr

[ginzyblog]

Fare thee well dear Michael • #michaelmcclure #poetrycommunity #grahhr (at New York, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_2b5q1BL9y/?igshid=o2fryim85cb1

[grahhr]

Photo of Joseph Beuys' performance piece "I Like America and America Likes Me," 1974.

From Wikipedia: "In May 1974 Beuys flew to New York and was taken by ambulance to the site of the performance, a room in the René Block Gallery at 409 West Broadway.Beuys lay on the ambulance stretcher swathed in felt. He shared this room with a wild coyote for eight hours over three days. At times he stood, wrapped in a thick, grey blanket of felt, leaning on a large shepherd's staff. At times he lay on the straw, at times he watched the coyote as the coyote watched him and cautiously circled the man, or shredded the blanket to pieces, and at times he engaged in symbolic gestures, such as striking a large triangle or tossing his leather gloves to the animal; the performance continuously shifted between elements that were required by the realities of the situation, and elements that had purely symbolic character. At the end of the three days, Beuys hugged the coyote that had grown quite tolerant of him, and was taken to the airport. Again he rode in a veiled ambulance, leaving America without having set foot on its ground."

[grahhr]

Michael McClure reading "Tantra 49" at the SF Zoo. From the USA: Poetry series, 1966.

[grahhr]

Syllabus for "Interspecies Communication"

Grahhr_Syllabus

[tubesintheirears]

Graahr! or, Thanks, along the Way

Here’s some footage of Michael McClure reading his “Tantra 49” at the lion cages at the SF Zoo—it’s from Richard O. Moore’s amazing series USA: Poetry, from 1966. I’m looking at it because I’m back in Pittsburgh, at the Cathedral of Learning, working today a bit on my Fall 2013 class-to-be, “Interspecies Communication.” I’m using an image, a screen grab from the YouTube of the film, as the frontispiece of my syllabus: with that 60’s era film, the image has such patina, even pre-Instragram. (If anybody happens to read this and wants to recommend a text for “Interspecies Communication,” I’m very open to it. I’m at cdlegere [at] pitt.edu.)

In the meantime, I’ve just been thinking about how much my admittedly still inchoate thinking for the Houghton/“Tubes”/“‘Uh’” project has been advanced by a few people who I’d like to credit or credit again. First, Chloe Garcia-Roberts and Christina Davis, the librarians at the WPR, who helped guide me through the library’s resources, went out for coffee and sushi with me, and introduced me to… Christina email-introduced me to Karin Roffman, a Professor at West Point, who is writing a much-anticipated biography of John Ashbery’s formative years, and who wrote to me very helpfully describing Ashbery’s attendance at Stevens’ readings, and the class he took on “Twentieth-Century American Poetry” with F.O. Matthiessen. Christina also email-introduced me to the poet Susan Howe, who very generously sent me an email with her personal recollections of “Matty,” Ashbery, and Stevens, and pointed me to Stevens’ letter about Matthiessen’s suicide, which I’ve embedded below.

As with—I don’t know, is this true of all projects?—well, as with most projects, interpersonal conversations and generosities make up the skeleton of this one, and have been invaluable.