Allen Ginsberg’s 1981 Naropa class (including observations on Jack Kerouac’s theory of spontaneous composition) continues from here
Student: Isn’t that a bit like Jack Spicer‘s theories?
AG: Yeah. I think somewhat Spicer had somewhat….
Student: That Bunting statement includes the statement that the poet writes because he has to.
AG: Well, yeah. Yeah. That could be a generalization which covers the….
Student: Yeah.
Student: And Spicer says the poet’s like a radio set.
AG: Um-hmm.
Student: (receiving) messages that you …
AG: Yeah.
Student: … write down.
Addenda – Basil Bunting (from “A Statement”)
“Poetry, like music, is to be heard, it deals in sounds, long sounds and short sounds, heavy beats and light beats, the tone relation of vowels, the relation of consonants to one another which are like instrumental color in music. Poetry lies dead on the page until some voice brings it to life, just as music on the stave is no more than instructions to the player….”
“Very few artists have clear analytical minds.They do what they do because they must (sic) .Some think about it afterwards in a muddled way and try unskillfully to reason about their art. Thus theories are produced which mislead critics and tyros and sometimes disfigure the work of artists who try to carry out their own theories,”
Addenda (Classroom conversation)
AG: Is she in the class regularly, that young lady that just left?
Student: Yes.
Student (2): Yeah.
AG: Was she being dragged by what we were doing? Do you think?
Student (Randy Roark): I don’t know.
AG: Did we drive her out?
Student: You could ask her later.
AG: Did we drive her out?
Audio for the above can be heard here , beginning at approximately twenty-three-and-a-quarter minutes in and concluding at approximately twenty-four-and-three-quarter minutes in