Showing results for "Readings" in Poetry

Reverse engineering the word, meme splicing, morpheme replacement therapy, phonetic modifications: These are some of the techniques in play throughout Reading the Bible Backwards, the lyrical thought experiments that make up this eagerly anticipated new collection of poems by Robert Priest. By throwing the Bible and other cultural narratives on the turntable and spinning them backwards, Priest unleashes surprisingly new but strangely familiar music and meaning. Whether the movements are sideways, inverted, or omni-directional, his satire has never been sharper—or darker.

Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti, born in Yonkers, NY, was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. An author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, and film narration, Ferlinghetti was best known for his second collection of poems, A Coney Island of the Mind (1958), which has been translated into nine languages and sold over a million copies. The following recording includes Ferlinghetti reading the poems, Baseball Canto, Travels in America Deserta, See It Was Like This When, and Underwear.

William Morris Meredith Jr. (January 9, 1919-May 30, 2007), born in New York City, was an American poet and educator. He was Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1978 to 1980, and the recipient of the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. In the following recordings Mederdith reads his poems "The Wreck of the Thresher," "Parents From The Cheer," "The Illiterate," and "Crossing Over."

John Anthony Ciardi (June 24, 1916-March 30, 1986) was an American poet, translator, and etymologist. While primarily known as a poet, Ciardi pursued etymology, contributed to the Saturday Review as a columnist and long-time poetry editor, directed the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in Vermont, and recorded commentaries for National Public Radio. In the following recordings, Ciardi reads "And They Lived Happily Ever After For Awhile," “To Judith, I,” “Happiness,” and “The Lamb.”

Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years in prison, part of which he spent in Reading Gaol. About five months after Wilde arrived at Reading Gaol, Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards, was brought to Reading to await his trial for murdering his common-law wife (and promptly presenting himself and confessing to a policeman) on 29 March 1896; on 17 June, Wooldridge was sentenced to death and returned to Reading for his execution, which took place on Tuesday, 7 July 1896 - the first hanging at Reading in 18 years. The poem is dedicated to him.

The poem written by Wilde while in exile about his time in Reading Prison and the hanging of Charles Thomas Wooldridge.

Something was dead in each of us,
And what was dead was Hope. In this moving poetic study of his experiences in the Victorian penal system, Wilde relates the relentlessness and tedium of prison life, and of the haunted thoughts which trouble these "souls in agony" within their "numbered tombs". Oscar Wilde wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" after his two-year imprisonment at the establishment. During his incarceration, a former trooper was convicted of the murder of his wife and hanged at the Gaol. This event is central to the poem's narrative.

Irwin Allen Ginsberg (June 3, 1926 - April 5, 1997), born in Newark NJ, was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of the Beat Generation. He vigorously opposed militarism, economic materialism, and sexual repression, and he embodied various aspects of this counterculture with his views on drugs, sex, multiculturalism, and hostility to bureaucracy. "America" is a poem by Ginsberg written in 1956.

Los mas bellos poemas de amor en espanol, escritos y leidos por Pablo Neruda. Veinte poemas de amor y Una cancion desesperada y Los versos del capitán (selección).

Sir John Betjeman was one of the best-known and loved Poet Laureates. Even after his death, his popularity continues to garner acclaim and new admirers. Fortunately, he left behind a legacy of poetry readings and performances in the BBC archives that can be enjoyed in this comprehensive...