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photo: © Charles Bernstein 2006
Robert Grenier lives in a sometime ecstatic state, but sometimes not, in Bolinas, California where he extends the tradition of the pastoral poem in ways entirely his own. One of the most influential poets of his generation, Grenier has, over the past forty years, pushed poetry into constantly new frontiers of practice and utterance. Over the past decade, Grenier has created handwritten poems that cross the upper limit of inscription to be both writing and drawing.
Program One:
Grenier discusses his development as a poet, his breaking away from conventional book format, his movement toward handwritten or "drawn" poems, and his relation to Larry Eigner.
Complete recording (26:57): MP3
Program Two:
Grenier reads from and discusses Sentences, a digital version of which is linked to his EPC page.
Complete recording (27:34): MP3
A guide to the reading of Sentences in this recording: At 3:54 in this recording Grenier discusses how his "Sentences" are an homage to Creeley. At 5:15 he discusses the relationship of one card to another. At 8:00: bird sounds and "Sentences"; at 9:55, he reads "Bird"; at 13:50, he reads an introduction to a French translation of the work; at 15:08 he reads a card, "Walking down Washington Avenue"; at 20:30 he reads "If rain, it's raining" in two ways; at 22:39 Charles Bernstein reads "rain drops the first of many"; at 26:20 Grenier counts to eleven and whistles (bird sound); at 26:36 he reads "A Bird."
WPS1 engineer: Lucy Sinanjuntak
PoemTalk #31, discussing Grenier's "Sentences," April 22, 2010
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.
PoemTalk #30, discussing William Carlos Williams' "Flowers by the Sea" and "The Red Wheelbarrow," March 28, 2010
Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.
Garlic in the Ground (Video)
Grenier reads poem from notebook; video by Charles Bernstein, Oct. 26, 2016
Al Filreis ans Charles Bernstein discuss a drawing poem by Robert Grenier
Dec. 2020 YouTube
PennSound MP4
Public Talk with Etel Adnan at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery, London, England, June 1, 2016
Watch on Media.sas
Complete recording (45:59): MP3
Talk at the Opening Reception of 'Language Objects: Letters in Space, 1970-2013' Brooklyn, New York, May 18, 2013
- Complete video (20:46): MP4
- Complete discussion (2:47:02): MP3
- Complete reading (1:06:59): MP3
Reading at Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee, March 04, 2012
- Drawing Poems Presentation (1:02:04): MP3
- End of Reading Questions (21:41): MP3
Reading with Donald Guravich, Stephen Ratcliffe, and Joanne Kyger, Bolinas Library, January 18, 2011
- Complete reading (1:01:20): MP3
On Natural Language: Four conversations with Stephen Ratcliffe (with images & 'rough translations' of RG color drawing poems discussed), 2011
Conversations linked here.
Conversations with Stephen Ratcliffe, Bolinas, 2001-2010
- The Ratcliffe/Grenier conversations here.
Interview and Discussion on 1964-1970s with Grenier, Al Filreis, Charles Bernstein, and Michael Waltuch in New York City, March 19, 2010
Interview Part 2 (2:11:44): MP3
Interview, Part 1 (1:16:28): MP3
Watch on Media.sas
Robert Grenier
Bob, Mimi Gross, and I met at
Pecan's, in Tribeca, just before taping Close Listening at WPS1's
Clocktower studio on Leonard Street. We walked across the street
and Bob sat on the stoop and talked about his visit to New York.
(mp4, 25 seconds, 4 mb)
Reading at the Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, October 27, 2009
- Complete reading (1:16:35): MP3 / MOV
- Penn Scans note on the drawing poem images discussed
- Al Filreis's blog entry on the images
Grenier Reading at Mills College for their Contemporary Writers Series, 2003
- Introduction (6:36): MP3
- Complete reading (1:19:08): MP3
Reading at Wednesdays @ 4Plus, University at Buffalo, February 6, 2003
- Complete Recording, part 1 (lecture) (1:26:25): MP3
- Complete recording, part 2 (59:16): MP3
Reading at Steel Bar, Febuary 4, 2003
- Interview, Part 1 (1:14:59): MP3
- Interview, Part 2 (54:45): MP3
Presented by the Creative Writing Program, Kelly Writers House, November 2, 2000
Complete recording (1:15:41): MP3
Wednesday Series: Book party for A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing 1960-1980. Robert Grenier, Jerome Rothenberg, St. Mark’s Church, NY, October 14, 1998
Recorded on audiocassette. Recording hosted by the Library of Congress.
- Side A (50:53): link
- Side B (48:17): link
Wednesdays @ 4Plus, University at Buffalo, October 22, 1998
Complete reading (2:21:01): MP3
Wednesdays @ 4Plus, University at Buffalo, October 5, 1994
Complete recording (slide lecture) (1:19:23): MP3
Lecture on "Drawing from Nature," Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, Naropa Institute, July 9, 1992
Complete reading (1:22:46): MP3
Reading at Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, October 25, 1987
This recording is from the Robert Creeley Tape Collection.
Complete discussion (1:35:33): MP3
- on the desire to “run amok” vs the desire to speak the truth in poetry (3:34): mp3
- on history and being political (6:36): mp3
- on how poets are like Hell’s Angels (5:49): mp3
- on readings of each other’s work (10:16): mp3
- on diversity of perspective in poetry (6:44): mp3
- on California (1:39): mp3
- on creating a relation between their works (2:17): mp3
- on teaching poetry (2:40): mp3
- on relationship between past work and present work, on Whitman (4:32): mp3
- on having an “un-European” vision of reality, on terms of understanding (6:13): mp3
- on having one’s life back up one’s work (4:46): mp3
- on the "basic difference" between them (7:27): mp3
- on Xeroxing work, on Grenier’s A Day at the Beach (5:18): mp3
- on revision (6:15): mp3
- on the nature of their occupation (8:26): mp3
- on spirits, on bearing witness (6:52): mp3
- on finding self in a composed poem, on cause and effect (6:32): mp3
Grenier reads from Sentences at the St. Mark's Poetry Project, NY, April 8th, 1981
Complete Recording (52:30): MP3
Two excerpts from Sentences:
TWELVE VOWELS ...
CONCEPTS / they see us ...
Two excerpts from Oakland:
Eyes open the door ...
Go out for a drive ...
Note: PennSound has prepared a summary/transcript [PDF] of this reading; selections from Sentences are marked with times where they occur in the recording.
"Sentences" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 31.
"Measure's Halloween" Lecture and Discussion, New College of CA, October 15, 1980
This recording is from the Robert Creeley Tape Collection.
Reading, November 30, 1978 (location unknown)
- Part 1 (32:26): MP3
- Part 2 (31:22): MP3
- Part 3 (19:47): MP3
Recording courtesy of Ron Silliman.
Also of Interest:
These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only.
All rights to this recorded material belong to the author.
© 2009 Robert Grenier. Close Listening © 2006 Grenier and Charles Bernstein.
Used with permission of Robert Grenier.
Distributed by PennSound.
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