KTRU pick of the week: Poetry on Record: 98 Poets Read Their Work

By Miguel Quirch     1/8/09 6:00pm

Poetry on Record features a diverse collection of poetry on four discs chock full of readings by the poets themselves. The poetry ranges from incomplete fragments to complete works.The different poets' presentations range from flat to enthralling. The exceptional tracks of the album have the power to bring the artists' poetry to life and give the listener a detailed portrait of the poet.

There is significant historic and educational value in this compilation; how often does one come across such a gathering of artists? The album is one of the most comprehensive commercially available collections of poets' readings in their own voices: 120 years, 128 poems, 98 poets.

The format of the album is almost chronological, beginning with the oldest artists and progressing through each CD to reach the most recent artists around the end of the third disc and throughout the fourth. It also includes a nice booklet with supplemental materials and essays that complement the audio collection.

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The first disc features many dry performances, with a standout being that of Theodore Roethke. It is particularly interesting to hear poets from the late 1800s in their own voices and with their own manners of speech and accents.

The second disc contains even better recordings and continues to draw the listener into the album by letting the emotion of the poetry seep through, especially with Hayden Carruth reading "Ray." As with the first CD, having the recorded readings of the poets adds a new layer of potential meaning for readers and listeners to explore.

The final two discs of the album showcase a broad variety of poets, from the symbolic journey of Adrienne Rich's "Diving into the Wreck," the charged poems of Amiri Baraka and Charles Simic's mastery of words to the more musically poetic forms on the fourth album, featuring names like Anne Waldman and Juan Felipe Herrera. Though the musically inclined pieces border on folksy music at times, they do reflect one contemporary take on the Spoken Word.

The historic value of having so many great artists recite their work is itself reason enough to add this piece to KTRU's Spoken Word Show stacks. Poetry on Record serves as a great way to get acquainted with the world of poetry.

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