Barbara Guest on LINEbreak with Charles Bernstein (1995, recorded in NY)

  1. Introduction (0:52): MP3
  2. A Reason (1:09): MP3
  3. on the New York Poets and their relation to painting (3:31): MP3
  4. Parachutes, My Love, Could Carry Us Higher (1:39): MP3
  5. Neige Fondant (1:51): MP3
  6. on how her work has changed (0:42): MP3
  7. on imagination (2:16): MP3
  8. on realism (1:30): MP3
  9. An Emphasis Falls on Reality (2:45): MP3
  10. on how her books connect (0:36): MP3
  11. Wild Gardens Overlooked by Night Lights (4:08): MP3
  12. on her identity as a woman (2:00): MP3
  13. Borderlands (2:04): MP3
  14. Multiplicity (2:58): MP3
Complete program (29:01): mp3
transcript of LINEbreak show at Jacket2

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the epsiode at Jacket2.

PoemTalk #24, Discussing Barbara Guest's "Roses", feat. Natalie Gerber, Randall Couch, and Michelle Taransky

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

  1. Introduction (0:23): MP3
  2. Hadley Guest reading "The Next Floor" by Barbara Guest (0:51): MP3
  3. Kathleen Fraser on being introduced to Barbara Guest and her work (13:46): MP3
  4. Barbara Guest's friendship with painters (9:33): MP3
  5. Hadley Guest on growing up around poets and painters (5:15): MP3
  6. the division between uptown and downtown in the New York art world in the 60s (12:31): MP3
  7. Barbara Guest's refusal to be pigeon-holed (2:23): MP3
  8. the cruelty of the downtown scene and Barbara Guest's intentional erasure (18:31): MP3
  9. Hadley Guest on living with Barbara during the last few years of her life and hearing about her first marriage to John Dudley (7:18): MP3
  10. Trumbull Higgins and social position in relation to money (11:33): MP3
  11. Barbara's uptown studio and her strong family feelings (16:55): MP3
  12. Barbara's shared apartment with Perdita Schaffner and her experience working and walking around Union Square (5:00): MP3
  13. productivity, freedom, and moving west (4:15): MP3
  14. Stephen Guest and introducing Barbara Guest to H.D. (15:35): MP3
  15. Barbara's work on H.D. (12:27): MP3
  16. Barbara's awareness of women writers, her relation to feminism, and her commitment to being a wife and mother as well as a poet (15:29): MP3
Complete recording (2:31:56): MP3
  • Part 1 (30:44): MP3
  • Part 2 (46:42): MP3
  • Part 3 (15:32): MP3

Barbara Guest Praise Day Tribute at The Bowery Poetry Club, October 21, 2006

with special guest Hadley Haden Guest and host Kristin Prevallet

  1. Introduction by Kristin Prevallet (0:36): MP3
  2. Santa Fe Trail (2:39): MP3
  3. Parade's End (0:55): MP3
  4. Nebraska (2:23): MP3
  5. from Herself Defined: H.D. and her World (2:25): MP3
  6. Activities (1:47): MP3
  1. Introduction by Kristin Prevallet (0:32): MP3
  2. discussing The New American Poetry and "Parachutes" (3:50): MP3
  3. Parachutes, My Love, Could Carry Us Higher (0:57): MP3
  4. discussing "Santa Fe Trail" (1:26): MP3
  1. Introduction by Kristin Prevallet (0:40): MP3
  2. Invisible Architecture (3:25): MP3
  3. discussing "Invisible Architecture" (0:38): MP3
  4. The Poetess (0:49): MP3
  5. An Emphasis Falls on Reality (2:11): MP3
  1. Introduction by Kristin Prevallet (0:38): MP3
  2. remembering Barbara Guest (4:32): MP3
  3. Composing Herself (Bookforum, April 2006; Jacket 29) (9:47): MP3

Africa Wayne (12:18): MP3

  1. Introduction by Kristin Prevallet (0:26): MP3
  2. on her friendship with Barbara Guest (1:37): MP3
  3. Turkey Villas (3:30): MP3
  4. A Reason (0:55): MP3
  5. on listening to Barbara Guest read (0:43): MP3
  6. The Farewell Stairway (3:31): MP3
  7. Negative Possibility (1:09): MP3
  1. Introduction by Kristin Prevallet (0:44): MP3
  2. on his relationship with Barbara Guest (3:09): MP3
  3. Another July (1:01): MP3
  4. Roses (1:19): MP3
  5. The Location of Things (2:20): MP3

"Roses" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 24.

  1. Introduction by Kristin Prevallet (0:45): MP3
  2. from Seeking Air (4:35): MP3
  3. on Barbara Guest's work (0:51): MP3
  4. from Confetti Trees (1:27): MP3

Conclusion (6:19): MP3

Complete reading (1:18:40): MP3

Reading from The Red Gaze

The Red Gaze (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)

Recorded for PennSound by Allan Graham, Berkeley, April 7, 2004:

  1. Nostalgia of the Infinite (1:39) [titled "Nostalgia" in the book]: MP3
  2. An Afternoon in Jeopardy (1:24): MP3
  3. Imagined Room (0:57): MP3
  4. She Honors De Chirico (0:54) [title changed to "Loneliness" for the book]: MP3
  5. A Different Honey (0:39): MP3
  6. A Short Narrative (0:29): MP3
  7. Roman Stripes (0:56): MP3
  8. The Next Floor (1:02): MP3
  9. Freedom (0:43): MP3
  10. The Hungry Knight (0:35): MP3
  11. The Trickster (0:44): MP3
  12. The Past (0:31): MP3
  13. Modernism (0:46): MP3
  14. A Burst of Leaves (0:35): MP3
  15. The Smooth Stair (0:49): MP3
  16. Alteration (0:32): MP3
  17. Freed Color (1:35): MP3
  18. Green Numbers (0:50): MP3
  19. The Brown Vest (0:39): MP3
  20. The Gold Tap (0:22): MP3
  21. The Red Gaze (0:45): MP3
  22. A Dawn Walk (0:36): MP3
  23. Untitled (0:23) [on p. 36 of the book]: MP3
  24. Hans Hofmann (2:26) [slightly longer than the published version]: MP3
  25. Vignettes (0:26) [one line shorter than version published in the book]: MP3
  26. Echoes (0:20) [one line shorter than version published in the book]: MP3
  27. Instructions (0:29): MP3
  28. Composition (0:41): MP3
  29. Supposition (0:15): MP3
  30. [quotation from Theodor Adorno] (0:16) [the book's epigraph]: MP3

Reading at The Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, 1999

  • Reading on August 14, 1999 (51:44): MP3
  • Reading on August 15, 1999 (48:49): MP3

Reading in the Mumford Room at the Library of Congress, December 5, 1996

Complete recording (1:05:51); MP3

  1. Introduction by Robert Haas (10:43): MP3
  2. Windy Afternoon (0:57): MP3
  3. Washington (1:47): MP3
  4. Green Onions (1:45): MP3
  5. Santa Fe Trail (1:37): MP3
  6. Sunday Evening (1:15): MP3
  7. Another July (0:56): MP3
  8. Living Solitarily in the Garret (1:22): MP3
  9. Roses (2:05): MP3
  10. Nebraska (2:34): MP3
  11. Heavy Violets (0:20): MP3
  12. Heavy Violets 2 (0:26): MP3
  13. Borderlands (1:34): MP3
  14. The Blue Stairs (2:32): MP3
  15. Parade's End (0:51): MP3
  16. An Emphasis Falls on Reality (2:09): MP3
  17. Wild Gardens Overlooked by Night Lights (3:06): MP3
  18. The View from Kandinsky's Window (1:35): MP3
  19. Prairie Houses (1:18): MP3
  20. The Sunroom (1:01): MP3
  21. There Was a Poem (0:26): MP3; JPG
  22. Dissonance Royal Traveller (2:53): MP3
  23. The Farewell Stairway (2:52): MP3
  24. Winter Horses (1:34): MP3
  25. The Surface as Object (1:27): MP3

Recording courtesy of Library of Congress

"Roses" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 24.

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, October 2, 1993

  1. Introduction (0:47): MP3
  2. La Problema (1:12): MP3
  3. Hieroglyph Acres (1:14): MP3
  4. Memory Pale Chloroform (1:56): MP3
  5. If So (2:09): MP3
  6. Post Office Wisdom (2:02): MP3
  7. Bold Plan (1:54): MP3
  8. Ojjiba (6:10): MP3
  9. The Advance of the Grizzly (2:53): MP3
  10. Winter Horses (2:40): MP3
  11. Motion Picture 1 (1:58): MP3
  12. Motion Picture 4 (4:00): MP3
  13. Trousers for Extras (1:08): MP3

Complete reading (30:59): MP3

Reading and lecture/discussion at SUNY-Buffalo - April 1 & 2, 1992

poetry reading - April 1

Entire reading (43:50): MP3

  1. The Nude (8:02) [from Fair Realism, 1989; CP, p. 238]: MP3
  2. The Farewell Stairway (3:15) [from Fair Realism; CP, p. 232]: MP3
  3. An Emphasis Falls on Reality (2:37) [from Fair Realism; CP, p. 221]: MP3; text
  4. Heavy Violets (0:46) [from Fair Realism; CP, p. 232]: MP3
  5. The Cradle of Culture (2:08) [from Fair Realism; CP, p. 250]: MP3
  6. Otranto (6:38) [from Defensive Rapture, 1993; CP, p. 300]: MP3
  7. Dove (2:26) [from Defensive Rapture; CP, p. 261]: MP3
  8. Defensive Rapture (2:33) [from Defensive Rapture; CP, p. 277]: MP3
  9. Borderlands (1:57) [from Defensive Rapture; CP, p. 288]: MP3
  10. Winter Horses (2:04) [from Defensive Rapture; CP, p. 304]: MP3
  11. The Glass Mountain (3:17) [from Defensive Rapture; CP, p. 295]: MP3
  12. Earrings (1:17) [Note: This poem, beginning "Running over the edge...," is not in Collected and might be unpublished.]: MP3
  13. Dissonance, Royal Traveller (4:10) [from Defensive Rapture; CP, p. 289]: MP3

Lecture and seminar discussion - April 2, 1992

  • I. Lecture titled "How I Got out of Poetry and into Prose" ["Poetry the True Fiction"] (20:24): MP3
  • II. Seminar discussion (1:37:35): MP3
  • [Note: This recording drops out once at 0:26:00 minutes and again and 1:13:00 when cassette was flipped or changed during recording.]

An Emphasis Falls on Reality (2:32): MP3 (2:32)

  • "Mysteriously Speaking of the Mysterious Byzantine Proposals of the Poem"

  • Introduction (2:48): MP3
  • Talk by Barbara Guest (24:59): MP3
  • Discussion (54:21): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, January 25, 1986

Susan Howe, Maureen Owen, and Barbara Einzig read from Barbara Guest's Seeking Air

  1. Introduction (1:04): MP3
  2. Kathleen Fraser on Seeking Air (3:26): MP3
  3. Susan Howe: Seeking Air, epigraph (0:33): MP3
  4. Barbara Einzig: Seeking Air, opening (5:10): MP3
  5. Maureen Owen: Seeking Air, 7 (1:19): MP3
  6. Susan Howe: Seeking Air, 11 (0:58): MP3
  7. Susan Howe: Seeking Air, 12 (1:03): MP3
  8. Maureen Owen: Seeking Air, 19 (1:43): MP3
  9. Susan Howe: Seeking Air, 20 (1:49): MP3
  10. Barbara Einzig: Seeking Air, 22 (2:30): MP3
  11. Maureen Owen: Seeking Air, 28 (3:12): MP3
  12. Barbara Einzig: Seeking Air, 40 (3:21): MP3
  13. Maureen Owen: Seeking Air, 63 (0:49): MP3
  14. Susan Howe: Seeking Air, 90 (1:00): MP3
  15. Susan Howe: Seeking Air, 100 (0:25): MP3
  16. Maureen Owen: Seeking Air, 102 (0:21): MP3
Complete reading (30:27): MP3

The Location of Things, Studio Recording, May 1984 (reading from poems dated 1960 to 1979)

[Note: The Location of Things is the title of Guest's 1960 volume; this commercial recording included readings from that book and others.]

  1. Windy Afternoon (0:49) [Collected Poems, p. 8]: MP3
  2. The Piazza (1:52) [titled "Piazzas," CP, p. 4]: MP3
  3. Santa Fe Trail (1:23) [in The Open Skies, CP p. 49]: MP3
  4. Sunday Evening (1:10) [CP, p. 13]: MP3
  5. The Blue Stairs (2:13) [from The Blue Stairs, CP, p. 61]: MP3
  6. Saving Tallow (1:46) [from The Blue Stairs, CP, p. 71]: MP3
  7. The Return of the Muses (2:15) [CP, p. 72]: MP3
  8. A Handbook of Surfing (9:55) [CP, p. 85]: MP3
  9. Turkey Villas (2:22) [CP, p. 64]: MP3
  10. Egypt (1:15) [from Moscow Mansions, CP, p. 100]: MP3
  11. Roses (1:20) [CP, p. 128]: MP3
  12. Passage (for John Coltrane) (1:21) [CP, p. 130]: MP3: text
  13. Knight of the Swan (11:42) [CP, p. 108]: MP3
  14. The Countess from Minneapolis (excerpts) (8:29) [CP, pp. 143-66]: MP3
  15. The Turler Losses (excerpts) (9:25) [CP, p. 169-182]: MP3

Credits for The Location of Things:

Selections 1-4, Poems, Doubleday and Company, Inc. Selections 5-9, The Blue Stairs, Corinth Books. Selections 10-13, Moscow Mansions, A Richard Seaver Book/The Viking Press. Selection 14, The Countess from Minneapolis, Burning Deck. Selection 15, The Turler Losses, Mansfield Book Mart Ltd. Copyright © 1962, 1968, 1973, 1976, 1979 by Barbara Guest.

Recording History: All selections were recorded at Artist's Access Studio, New York, New York, May, 1984 Producer: Anne Becker Recording Engineer: Peter Darmi Post Prod. Engineers: Anne Becker & Katherin Mattern Executive Producer: Alan Austin

"Roses" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 24.

Reading for Emily Dickinson's Birthday Celebration, St. Mark's Church in the Bowery Poetry Project, December 10, 1979

  • Guest reads “3 a.m. Amagansett” and Biography (8:22): MP3
  1. Red Lilies (1:08): MP3
  2. on her childhood and when she started to write (1:47): MP3
  3. on Stephen Guest and H.D. (2:40): MP3
  4. on using a male persona in Seeking Air (2:42): MP3
  5. "I don't think I could stand the noise of this city a day longer..." [excerpt, from Seeking Air] (1:55): MP3
  6. on Wide Sargasso Sea (0:24): MP3
  7. "Night wind blowing from the north..." [excerpt, from Seeking Air] (1:47): MP3
  8. on her interest in colonial life (1:25): MP3
  9. "Dark, indeed, must have always been mixed..." [excerpt, from Seeking Air] (2:12): MP3
  10. "I think of the sallow-skinned men..." [excerpt, from Seeking Air] (1:01): MP3
  11. on George Seferis (1:18): MP3
  12. "It was like driving a ball from behind that clump of grass..." [excerpt, from Seeking Air] (4:55): MP3
  13. on the difference between writing novels and poetry (2:00): MP3
  14. on biography, autobiography, and Ford Madox's The Good Soldier (2:09): MP3
  15. on breaking down the old idea of hero and heroine (0:59): MP3
  16. on the process of working on an autobiography of H.D. (5:52): MP3
  17. on particular writers who have been important to her (1:11): MP3

Complete program (1:06:31): MP3

Appearing with John Ashbery on P.E.N. Portraits, hosted by Anne Fremantle, WNYC, May 22, 1977

  1. Introduction (3:42): MP3
  2. responding to Emily Dickinson's statement that some words made her want to take off her hat to them (3:38): MP3
  3. fondness of particular words (3:18): MP3
  4. commenting on teaching poetry (1:19): MP3
  5. John Ashbery reading "And Ut Pictura Poesis Is Her Name" (1:54): MP3
  6. John Ashbery reading "What Is Poetry" (0:46): MP3
  7. Barbara Guest reading "June" (1:04): MP3
  8. Barbara Guest reading "Passage (for John Coltrane)" [CP, p. 130] (1:33): MP3 : text
  9. John Ashbery reading from "Three Poems" (1:22): MP3
  10. breaking down the division between ideas and words (4:19): MP3
  11. starting with a title and theme v. letting the poem develop as it comes along (4:30): MP3
  12. closing comments (1:28): MP3
Complete program (28:52): MP3

Complete recording (1:01:59); MP3

  1. The Blue Stairs (2:33): MP3
  2. Turkey Villas (2:41): MP3
  3. A Reason (0:48): MP3
  4. Walking Buddha (1:21): MP3
  5. Barrels (1:21): MP3
  6. East of Omsk (1:16): MP3
  7. Clouds Near the Window (1:48): MP3
  8. A Way of Being (2:06): MP3
  9. Four Moroccan Studies (2:08): MP3
  10. Parade's End (0:52): MP3
  11. Fan Poems (3:16): MP3
  12. Saving Tallow (1:59): MP3
  13. Colonial Hours (2:29): MP3
  14. 20 (1:16): MP3
  15. Direction (1:43): MP3
  16. Passage (1:18): MP3
  17. See Song (0:24): MP3
  18. Days (1:16): MP3
  19. 3 AM (1:04): MP3
  20. Eating Chocolate Ice Cream: Reading Mayakovsky (2:25): MP3
  21. Roses (1:30): MP3
  22. Carmen (1:45): MP3
  23. Olivetti Ode (0:57): MP3
  24. On a Chinese Vase (2:26): MP3
  25. The Flaking Ceiling (0:29): MP3
  26. The Watering Can (1:57): MP3
  27. A Handbook of Surfing (12:21): MP3

Recording courtesy of Library of Congress

"Roses" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 24.

Complete recording (1:00:04); MP3

  1. The Location of Things (2:46): MP3
  2. April (1:27): MP3
  3. Piazzas (2:23): MP3
  4. In the Middle of the Easel (1:28): MP3
  5. Windy Afternoon (1:10): MP3
  6. All Grey-haired, My Sisters (3:33): MP3
  7. Russians at the Beach (1:14): MP3
  8. The Hero Leaves His Ship (2:18): MP3
  9. Birthday (0:49): MP3
  10. On the Way to Dumbarton Oaks (1:19): MP3
  11. Les Realites (1:29): MP3
  12. The Wandering Musicians by Manet (1:45): MP3
  13. Poème Classique (0:47): MP3
  14. Cape Canaveral (1:07): MP3
  15. Sunday Evening (1:37): MP3
  16. The Crisis (1:30): MP3
  17. Sadness (1:16): MP3
  18. Upside Down (0:41): MP3
  19. History (1:03): MP3
  20. Parachutes, My Love, Could Carry Us Higher (1:16): MP3
  21. Jaffa Juice (3:21): MP3
  22. Lights of My Eyes (0:35): MP3
  23. In Dock (1:22): MP3
  24. Santa Fe Trail (1:48): MP3
  25. West 64th Street (1:12): MP3
  26. Safe Flights (1:35): MP3
  27. The Time of Day (1:11): MP3
  28. Heroic Stages (2:10): MP3
  29. Belgravia (2:18): MP3
  30. The Crisis (2) (1:06): MP3
  31. The Past of a Poem (1:09): MP3
  32. Snow Angel (0:46): MP3
  33. Dido to Aeneas (1:32): MP3
  34. Atalanta in Arcadia (1:39): MP3
  35. Green Awnings (1:43): MP3
  36. From Eyes Blue and Cold (0:59): MP3
  37. Palm Trees (0:45): MP3

Recording courtesy of Library of Congress

Complete program (1:02:12): MP3

Reading at St. Mark's Poetry Project, NY

  • Complete recording (7:39): MP3

Also of Interest

UC Berkeley Lunch Poems: videos

 

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2004-2009 the estate of Barbara Guest. Used with permission of Barbara Guest. Distributed by PennSound.