WRITER Robert Kelly (b.1935-)
DATE 04 April 2007, 8:00pm
PLACE 102 Murray Hall, University of Maine, Orono
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Robert Kelly read to an audience of approximately ninety-five people in an evening event co-sponsored by the New Writing Series and the Honors College's "Cultural Odyssey" program. A major late-season snowstorm was just starting as Kelly began reading at 8pm. By the next morning, more than a foot and a half of snow had fallen in Orono.
OVERVIEW OF SET
Kelly read from four books published in 2005-2006 (see below) and from as-yet unpublished work that he kept in a thick ring binder labeled "March" (presumably of 2007) on the spine.
RELATED TITLES
Kelly, Robert. Lapis. Boston: David R. Godine / Black Sparrow, 2005.
---. May Day. Richmond Hill: Parsifal, 2006.
---. Runic Notebook. Privately printed, 2005.
---. Samphire. Backwoods Broadsides Chaplet Series Nº 97 (2006).
---. Threads. Lawrence: First Intensity, 2006.
Kelly, Robert, and Birgit Kemper. Shame: A Collaboration. Kingston: McPherson, 2005.
ARCHIVAL RECORD
The event was recorded on digital video tape using a Sony DCR-TRV19 camera and an Audio-technica ATR 20 external microphone. The image quality is poor due to bright backlighting. The audio track is 12-bit mono and of very good quality, except for during the question and answer period when the poet moved away from the stationary mike. An 8-bit mp3 recording of the event was made using a 2005 iPod equipped with an "iTalk" mic by Griffin.
RELATED MATERIALS
A second videorecording was made on 5 April 2007 at the home of Steve Evans and Jennifer Moxley.
SET LIST
00:00 [Introduction by Steve Evans not recorded; see separate audiofile of event
00:00 [Kelly's opening remarks
01:05 [On hearing Dylan Thomas a few months before the poet's death
02:00 [On Simone dos Anjos, her use of "Runic Workbook"
03:05 "Section T" from RUNIC NOTEBOOK as arranged by Simone dos Anjos
From LAPIS
04:00 [Remarks on LAPIS
04:45 Still Life: Origin of the Alphabet
05:30 [Remarks on the work of poetry
05:59 Alarm Clock Stunned by Sudden Dawn
07:20 The Heretic
From SAMPHIRE
08:55 [Remarks on his broadside SAMPHIRE and on John Cowper Powys
09:37 Samphire 2.1
10:15 [Humming to self
From THREADS
10:30 [On his book THREADS; his compositional habits; the lyrical occasion; this book made up of facts dealt with in a single sentence
11:40 [On Derrida's memorial to Maurice Blanchot
12:10 Threads 4: Derrida's Farewell to Blanchot
14:55 [Sip of water
15:10 [On Edward Kelly and John Dee
16:20 Threads 18: Art Has No Opposite
from MAY DAY
19:00 [On MAY DAY, his most recent book; on Canada; "hope is from the North, always"
19:45 [On American poet Gustaf Sobin, his life in France; the Marquis de Sade's favorite castle; the ancient Roman arena at Arles
21:00 Aftermath at Arles [p63]
22:00 The Slates of La Borne: Closets [p64]
22:45 The Slates of La Borne: Amber [p65]
from UNPUBLISHED POEMS
24:10 [Remarks on recent work; unpublished poems from manuscript binder marked "March"
24:50 [Remarks on John Ashbery, his recent work; his poem "Clepsydra"; the Modern Review's upcoming "assignment" to write about "Clepsydra"
26:40 A Water Clock
29:32 [On collaboration; listening to fifteen sonatas by Czech composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, one for each of the mysteries of the Catholic rosary; "as I listened I wrote..."
31:04 [On a statue of a huge standing woman, the image of "Mother Motherland"
31:45 Fourth Sonata in D Minor, The Presentation
from SHAME
33:05 [On the collaborative prose work, SHAME, written with Birgit Kempker
33:55 [On the cover image, a composite of Kempker's face and Kelly's
34:30 [Kempker's shame, related to others, and Kelly's, perceived inadequacy of self
34:55 Excerpt from Shame 6: "In the courtyard grew a tree" [p47-51]
39:00 [Thanks audience; applause
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
39:15 [Q&A follows, not often audible as poet moves into audience and away from mic
39:45 [Robert "sells" The Convections, a book of his being given away
40:10 [Q: How many languages do you speak?
45:50 [Q: Can you talk about the idea of poetry being an exploration with "the real other"?
49:32 [Q: How do you view the relation of poetry and song...
55:00 [Drawing for free book
56:25 [Milling about