Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (“ModPo”)

2 Assignment

• on Niedecker's "Grandfather advised me"
• on Corman's "It isnt for want"

11 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 2
• watch video on William Carlos Williams’s “Smell!”
• watch video on William Carlos Williams's "Danse Russe"
• watch video on Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California"
• watch video on Lorine Niedecker's "Grandfather Advised Me"
• watch video on Lorine Niedecker's "You are my friend"
• watch video on Lorine Niedecker's "Foreclosure"
• watch the CANON CHALLENGE for week 2
• watch video on Cid Corman's "It isnt for want"
• watch video on Rae Armantrout's "The Way"
• watch video on distinctions between “Dickinsonian” and “Whitmanian” proto-modernism

22 Readings

• listen to an optional further introduction to week 2: audio & transcript
• read William Carlos Williams’s “Smell!”
• listen to Williams perform “Smell!”
• read/listen to "Smell!" in text-audio alignment
• read Williams's "Danse Russe"
• listen to Williams perform "Danse Russe"
• read/listen to “Danse Russe” in text-audio alignment
• read Allen Ginsberg's “A Supermarket in California”
• listen to Ginsberg perform “A Supermarket in California”
• read/listen to Ginsberg's “A Supermarket in California” as text-audio alignment
• read Lorine Niedecker's “Grandfather advised me”
• read Lorine Niedecker's “You are my friend”
• read Lorine Niedecker's “Foreclosure”
• listen to Lorine Niedecker perform “Foreclosure”
• listen to a 30-minute discussion of “Foreclosure” (& another short poem)
• read Cid Corman's "It isnt for want"
• listen to Cid Corman perform “It isnt for want”
• read Rae Armantrout's “The Way”
• listen to Rae Armantrout perform “The Way”
• listen to Rae Armantrout talk briefly about “The Way”
• listen to PoemTalk discussion of “The Way”
• essay assignment #1

1 Assignment

• on "In a Station of the Metro"

8 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 3
• watch video on H.D.'s "Sea Rose"
• watch video on Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"
• watch video on Ezra Pound's "The Encounter"
• watch further discussion on "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
• watch a discussion of Tonya Foster's haiku (with the poet)
• watch a PoemTalk discussion of Tonya Foster's haiku
• watch the CANON CHALLENGE for week 3

12 Readings

• listen to an optional further introduction to week 3: audio & transcript
• imagism briefly defined
• read H.D.'s "Sea Rose"
• read Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"
• read Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" as it appeared in Poetry magazine
• read a selection of critical commentary on "In a Station of the Metro"
• watch brief further discussion of Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"
• read Ezra Pound's "The Encounter"
• read Wallace Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
• listen to a discussion of Stevens's "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"
• read haiku from Tonya Foster's "A Swarm of Bees in High Court"
• essay #1: write reviews of others' essays

1 Assignment

• on Williams's "Between Walls"

8 Videos

• watch video on Williams's "Lines"
• watch video on Williams's "Between Walls"
• watch video on Williams’s “This Is Just to Say”
• watch/hear Williams on poems as words not thoughts
• watch video on Williams's "The Red Wheelbarrow"
• watch video discussion on Duchamp’s “Fountain”
• watch video on Williams's "Portrait of a Lady"
• watch video on Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase"

19 Readings

• read William Carlos Williams's "Lines"
• read William Carlos Williams's "Between Walls"
• listen to Williams reading "Between Walls"
• read/listen with text-audio alignment to Williams's "Between Walls"
• listen to PoemTalk discussion of "Between Walls"
• read William Carlos Williams's "This Is Just to Say"
• read Flossie Williams's reply to "This Is Just to Say"
• listen to William Carlos Williams's explanation of “This Is Just to Say”
• listen to five recordings of Williams reading "This Is Just to Say"
• read William Carlos Williams's "The Red Wheelbarrow"
• listen to four recordings of Williams reading “The Red Wheelbarrow”
• watch further discussion of Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow”
• look at a photograph of Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” at the Philadephia Museum of Art
• watch a museum-goer’s video of Duchamp’s “Fountain” on display at SFMoMA
• read William Carlos Williams's, “The rose is obsolete”
• listen to a 6-minute close reading of “The rose is obsolete”
• read William Carlos Williams's, "Portrait of a Lady"
• listen to 3 recordings of Williams performing “Portrait of a Lady”
• look at Marcel Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”

1 Assignment

• on "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass"

9 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 4
• watch video on Stein's "A Long Dress"
• watch further discussion on "A Long Dress"
• watch video on Stein's "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass"
• watch video on "Water Raining" and "Malachite"
• watch video on Stein's ideas about narrative, composition, repeating & nouns
• watch video on Stein's "Let Us Describe"
• watch video on Stein's "If I Told Him"
• watch the CANON CHALLENGE for week 4

27 Readings

• listen to an optional further introduction to week 4: audio & transcript
• read Stein's "A Long Dress" from Tender Buttons
• read Marjorie Perloff's comment on Stein and in particular on "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass"
• read Gertrude Stein, "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass," from the "Objects" section of Tender Buttons
• watch video of Laynie Browne discussing "A Carafe" and the "Objects" section of Tender Buttons
• listen to Jackson Mac Low's 1978 performance of Stein's "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass"
• listen to Jackson Mac Low's close reading of "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass"
• watch video on Stein’s phrase “not unordered in not resembling”
• read Stein's "Water Raining" and "Malachite" from Tender Buttons
• watch Bob Perelman on Stein's use of the continuous present tense
• watch Ron Silliman on how each Stein poem creates its own definition of reading
• watch discussion of the pleasure to be gotten from Stein's “linguistic-ness”
• read Stein on narrative
• read Stein on the noun
• read Stein on repetition
• read Stein on composition
• listen to Joan Retallack reading from Stein’s “Composition as Explanation”
• condensed version of video on Stein's ideas about narrative, composition & nouns [alternative]
• watch further discussion on the noun & loving repeating
• read Gertrude Stein's "Let Us Describe"
• read Stein’s “If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso”
• listen to Stein perform “If I Told Him”
• read/listen with text-audio alignment of Stein's "If I Told Him"
• watch a dance choreographed to Stein's “If I Told Him”
• read Ulla Dydo's prefatory comment on "If I Told Him"
• listen to Marjorie Perloff speaking about Stein’s portraits
• essay assignment #2

1 Assignment

• on Tzara's "To Make a Dadaist Poem"

4 Videos

• listen to a ModPo'er perform "A Dozen Cocktails"
• watch video on Baroness Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven
• watch video on Tristan Tzara's "To Make a Dadaist Poem"
• watch video on Bishop's "A Recollection" and the sonnet in modernism

10 Readings

• read Baroness Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven’s “A Dozen Cocktails—Please”
• explore the archived manuscript of "A Dozen Cocktails—Please"
• read Williams on the Baroness
• listen to a brief bio of the Baroness
• listen to a passage from Kenneth Rexroth’s account of the Baroness
• read Tristan Tzara’s “To Make a Dadaist Poem”
• watch a film-illustration of “To Make a Dadaist Poem”
• read about the sonnet as a form
• read William Carlos Williams on the sonnet
• read John Peale Bishop, "A Recollection"

3 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 5
• watch video on Ruth Lechlitner's "Lines for an Abortionist's Office"
• watch video on Genevieve Taggard's "Interior"

4 Readings

• listen to an optional further introduction to week 5 (audio & transcript)
• read Ruth Lechlitner’s “Lines for an Abortionist's Office”
• read Genevieve Taggard’s “Interior’
• essay #2: write reviews of others' essays

1 Assignment

• on Claude McCay's "If We Must Die"

6 Videos

• watch/listen to Al Filreis on "Yet Do I Marvel"
• watch video discussion of Cullen’s “Incident”
• watch video on McKay's "If We Must Die"
• watch video on Hughes's "Dinner Guest: Me"
• watch video on teaching Hughes’s “Dinner Guest: Me”
• watch video on Brooks’s “Boy Breaking Glass”

12 Readings

• read Countee Cullen’s “Yet Do I Marvel”
• read Countee Cullen’s “Incident”
• read Claude McKay's "If We Must Die"
• listen to McKay perform "If We Must Die"
• listen to a PoemTalk episode about "If We Must Die"
• read Langston Hughes’s “Dinner Guest: Me”
• read Gwendolyn Brooks’s “Boy Breaking Glass”
• (alt.) watch shorter version of video on Brooks's "Boy Breaking Glass"
• read Gwendolyn Brooks’s “truth”
• listen to an audio discussion of Brooks's “truth”
• listen to a 30-minute PoemTalk discussion of Brooks’s “truth” & Etheridge Knight’s poem-response
• (alt.) listen to an abridged (17-min.) version of the PoemTalk discussion of Brooks & Knight

1 Videos

• watch video on Frost's "Mending Wall"

5 Readings

• read Robert Frost's "Mending Wall"
• listen to Frost declaim "Mending Wall"
• read/hear Frost's "Mending Wall" with machine-aided text-audio alignment
• optional: watch & listen to four contemporary poets debate “Mending Wall”
• watch 6-minute excerpt from the 1-hr. video on "Mending Wall"

1 Assignment

• on Richard Wilbur's "The Death of a Toad"

4 Videos

• watch video on Wilbur's "The Death of a Toad"
• watch further discussion of Wilbur's "The Death of a Toad"
• watch video on Kennedy’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”
• watch further discussion on Kennedy's "Nude Descending a Staircase"

2 Readings

• read Richard Wilbur's "The Death of a Toad"
• read X. J. Kennedy’s “Nude Descending a Staircase”

2 Assignment

• on Ginsberg's “Howl”
• on Robert Creeley's "I Know a Man"

18 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 6
• watch video on the first section of Ginsberg's "Howl" (part 1)
• watch video on the first section of Ginsberg's "Howl" (part 2)
• (alt.) watch abridged version of discussion of "Howl"
• watch video on Kerouac's ideas about prose
• (alternative) watch short version of video on Kerouac's ideas about prose
• on Kerouac's "Old Angel Midnight"
• (alt.) abridged version of video on Kerouac's "Old Angel Midnight"
• watch ModPo TAs debate spontaneity & first thought/best thought
• watch video: can we do a close reading of babble flow?
• watch video on Bob Kaufman's "Jail Poems"
• watch Doug Kearney & others on "Jail Poems"
• watch the CANON CHALLENGE for week 6
• watch video on Creeley's "I Know a Man"
• watch video on Waldman's "Rogue State"
• watch video on Baraka's "Incident"
• watch video on Baraka's "How You Sound??"
• watch video on Jayne Cortez's "She Got He Got"

25 Readings

• listen to an optional further introduction to chapter 7, week 6 (audio & transcript)
• read Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (part 1)
• listen to Ginsberg perform "Howl" in 1956
• listen to a brief excerpt from Ginsberg’s performance of “Howl”
• read Jack Kerouac’s “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose”
• read Jack Kerouac’s “Belief & Technique for Modern Prose”
• read section 1 of Kerouac's "Old Angel Midnight"
• listen to Kerouac perform the first section of "Old Angel Midnight"
• read PoemTalk program notes on "Old Angel Midnight"
• listen to PoemTalk episode on "Old Angel Midnight"
• listen to Clark Coolidge read section 4 of "Old Angel Midnight"
• read section 4 of "Old Angel Midnight"
• read Bob Kaufman's “Jail Poems” (sections 3, 4, 7, 14, 19, 22, 34 & 35)
• (alternative) watch shorter version of video on Kaufman's "Jail Poems"
• read Robert Creeley's "I Know a Man"
• listen to 5 recordings of Creeley performing “I Know a Man”
• read/listen with text-audio alignment to Creeley's "I Know a Man"
• listen to PoemTalk on Creeley's "I Know a Man"
• listen to Anne Waldman perform “Rogue State”
• watch video of Waldman’s performance of “Rogue State”
• read Amiri Baraka’s “Incident”
• read Amiri Baraka's “How You Sound??”
• watch Doug Kearney on Baraka's "How You Sound??"
• watch & listen as Jayne Cortez performs “She Got He Got”
• read a transcript of "She Got He Got" by Jayne Cortez

2 Assignment

• on O'Hara's "The Day Lady Died"
• on Guest's "20"

18 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 7
• watch discussion of O’Hara's “The Day Lady Died”
• watch/listen to Koch perform "Variations on a Theme"
• watch video on Koch's “Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams”
• watch video on Ashbery's “The Instruction Manual”
• watch further discussion of Ashbery’s “The Instruction Manual”
• watch video on Guest's “20”
• watch further discussion of Guest’s “20”
• watch video on James Schuyler's "February"
• watch video on Ashbery's "Some Trees" (part 1)
• watch video on Ashbery's "Some Trees" (part 2)
• watch video on Mayer’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
• watch the CANON CHALLENGE for week 7
• watch a discussion of Eileen Myles' "Mount St. Helens"
• watch discussion of Hanif Abdurraqib's "USAvCUBA"
• watch video on Patrick Rosal's "Uptown Ode That Ends on an Ode to the Machete" Part I
• watch video on Patrick Rosal's "Uptown Ode That Ends on an Ode to the Machete" Part II
• (alt.) watch abridged discussion of Rosal's poem (20 mins.)

23 Readings

• read Frank O’Hara’s “The Day Lady Died”
• listen to O'Hara perform “The Day Lady Died”
• watch video of O'Hara reading “The Day Lady Died"
• read Kenneth Koch’s "Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams"
• read John Ashbery’s “The Instruction Manual”
• listen to Ashbery perform “The Instruction Manual”
• read Barbara Guest’s “20” & listen to a recording
• read James Schuyler's "February"
• listen to Schuyler perform "February"
• read John Ashbery’s “Some Trees”
• listen to Ashbery perform “Some Trees”
• read/listen to Ashbery’s “Some Trees” with text-audio alignment
• read Bernadette Mayer’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
• listen to Mayer perform “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”
• read/listen to Mayer’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” with text-audio alignment
• read Eileen Myles' "Mount St. Helens"
• listen to Myles read "Mount St. Helens"
• watch Eileen Myles talk with Al Filreis about Mount St. Helens
• read Hanif Abdurraqib's "USAvCUBA"
• listen to Hanif Abdurraqib perform "USAvCUBA"
• read Patrick Rosal’s “Uptown Ode That Ends on an Ode to the Machete”
• listen to Patrick Rosal read "Uptown Ode"
• essay assignment #3

2 Assignment

• on Perelman's "Chronic Meanings"
• on Henijian's "My Life"

12 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 8 (12 mins.)
• optional 24-min. supplemental intro to Language poetry
• watch video on Hejinian’s My Life (part 1)
• watch video on Hejinian’s My Life (part 2)
• (alt.) watch abridged version of discussion of Hejinian's "My Life"
• watch video on Perelman’s "Chronic Meanings"
• watch video on Bernstein’s "In a Restless World Like This Is"
• watch the CANON CHALLENGE for week 8
• watch video on Howe’s “My Emily Dickinson”
• watch brief video introducing Mullen's "Sleeping with the Dictionary"
• watch video on Mullen’s “Sleeping with the Dictionary”
• watch discussion of John Keene's "Persons and Places" on location

30 Readings

• read 4 sections of Lyn Hejinian’s "My Life"
• listen to Lyn Hejinian read 4 sections of "My Life"
• read Bob Perelman’s “Chronic Meanings”
• read Perelman’s note on “Chronic Meanings”
• listen to Perelman talk briefly about “Chronic Meanings”
• listen to Perelman perform “Chronic Meanings”
• read/listen to Perelman’s “Chronic Meanings” as text-audio alignment
• watch video of Bob Perelman & others discussing “Chronic Meanings”
• read Charles Bernstein’s “In a Restless World Like This Is”
• listen to Bernstein perform “In a Restless World Like This Is”
• read/listen to Bernstein’s “In a Restless World Like This Is” as text-audio alignment
• listen to PoemTalk about Bernstein’s “In a Restless World Like This Is”
• (alt.) listen to an abridged version of the discussion of "In a Restless World..."
• watch Bob Perelman & others discussing Bernstein’s “Restless World”
• read Emily Dickinson’s “My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun”
• read passages from Susan Howe’s “My Emily Dickinson”
• listen to an excerpt of Charles Bernstein’s conversation with Susan Howe about Emily Dickinson
• listen to Rae Armantrout read and comment on “My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun”
• listen to PoemTalk on Susan Howe’s "My Emily Dickinson"
• (alt.) listen to an abridged version of the PoemTalk discussion of "My Emily Dickinson"
• (alt.) watch abridged video on Howe's "My Emily Dickinson"
• read two poems from Harryette Mullen’s book “Sleeping with the Dictionary”
• listen to Harryette Mullen read & explain “Sleeping with the Dictionary”"
• (alt.) watch abridged video on "Sleeping with the Dictionary"
• read "Cant" & "Written by H'Self" by Tyrone Williams
• listen to Tyrone Williams read "Cant" & "Written by H'Self"
• listen to a PoemTalk discussion of Tyrone Williams's "Cant" & "Written by H'Self"
• (alt.) listen to an abridged (21-min.) version of the PoemTalk discussion of Tyrone Williams
• read John Keene's "Persons and Places"
• essay #3: write reviews of others’ essays

2 Assignment

• on John Cage
• on Joan Retallack's "Not a Cage"

9 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 9
• watch video on Cage's "Writing through Howl"
• watch video on Cage’s adagia
• watch video on Mac Low's "A Vocabulary for Peter Innisfree Moore"
• watch video on Mac Low's approach to Stein
• watch video on Osman's "Dropping Leaflets"
• watch video on Bernadette Mayer's writing experiments
• watch video on Retallack's "Not a Cage"
• watch further discussion of Retallack's "Not a Cage"

29 Readings

• listen to an optional further introduction to week 9: audio & transcript
• read a description of mesostics
• read a brief excerpt from John Cage’s “Writing through Howl”
• read three pages on “Writing through Howl” by Marjorie Perloff
• try your hand at making your own mesostic
• read a selection of John Cage’s adagia
• listen to Cage speak about why he seeks to “mak[e] English less understandable”
• listen to an excerpt from Jackson Mac Low’s “A Vocabulary for Peter Innisfree Moore”
• read Daniel Kane’s comment on Mac Low with reference to Peter Innisfree Moore
• view Mac Low’s chart for performers of "A Vocabulary for Peter Innisfree Moore
• read an article about Peter Innisfree Moore
• read Mac Low’s elaborate performance instructions for “A Vocabulary for Peter Innisfree Moore”
• watch discussion of chance poetry & mourning
• listen to Mac Low's 1978 reading of Stein's "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass"
• listen to Mac Low's commentary on Tender Buttons
• read a brief introduction to Mac Low’s Stein poems
• read Mac Low's poem #100 in his Stein series, “A Feather Likeness of the Justice Chair”
• listen to Mac Low perform "A Feather Likeness of the Justice Chair"
• read Jena Osman’s “Dropping Leaflets”
• listen to Osman perform “Dropping Leaflets”
• listen to PoemTalk on Osman’s “Dropping Leaflets”
• (alt.) listen to an abridged (17-min.) version of PoemTalk on "Dropping Leaflets"
• read a selection of Bernadette Mayer's writing experiments
• read Joan Retallack’s “Not a Cage”
• listen to Retallack read "Not a Cage"
• read/listen to Retallack’s “Not a Cage” as text-audio alignment
• listen to PoemTalk on Retallack's “Not a Cage”
• (alt.) listen to an abridged (18-min.) version of the PoemTalk discussion of Retallack's "Not a Cage"
• essay assignment #4

2 Assignment

• on unoriginality
• on Morris's "Africa(n)"

12 Videos

• watch an introduction to week 10
• watch video on Bök’s “Eunoia”
• watch video on Baum’s “Card Catalogue” and “Dog Ear”
• watch video on Caroline Bergvall's "VIA"
• watch video on Magee’s “Pledge” & “My Angie Dickinson”
• watch the CANON CHALLENGE for week 10
• watch video on Waldrop’s “Shorter American Memory”
• watch discussion of Nasser Hussain's SKY WRI TEI NGS
• (alt.) watch abridgement of Nasser Hussain discussion
• watch discussion of Jordan Abel's "The Place of Scraps"
• (alt.) watch abridged version of Jordan Abel discussion
• watch video on Tracie Morris’s “Africa(n)” & final words

24 Readings

• read Christian Bök, “Chapter E” of “Eunoia”
• listen to Christian Bök perform "Chapter E” of “Eunoia”
• read & look at Erica Baum’s “Card Catalogue”
• read & look at Erica Baum’s “Dog Ear”
• listen to Caroline Bergvall perform “VIA”
• read Caroline Bergvall’s “VIA”
• read Bergvall’s preface to “VIA”
• read Brian Reed's essay on Bergvall's “VIA”
• listen to a PoemTalk discussion of Bergvall’s “VIA”
• read an excerpt from Michael Magee’s “Pledge”
• read Magee's comments on ModPo’ers’ responses to “Pledge”
• read Ron Silliman on Michael Magee’s “My Angie Dickinson”
• read a selection of poems from Magee’s “My Angie Dickinson”
• read Magee's description of the methodology of “My Angie Dickinson”
• read Magee’s definition of “flarf” poetry for Charles Bernstein
• read Rosmarie Waldrop’s “Shorter American Memory of the Declaration of Independence”
• listen to Waldrop perform “Shorter American Memory of the Declaration of Independence”
• listen to an episode of PoemTalk on Waldrop’s “Shorter American Memory”
• read Nasser Hussain's "SKY WRI TEI NGS"
• read Jordan Abel's "The Place of Scraps"
• listen to Tracie Morris introduce & perform “Africa(n)”
• watch a video of Tracie Morris performing “Africa(n)”
• listen to a musical arrangement of “Africa(n)” with Val Jeanty
• essay #4: write reviews of others' essays