Basil Bunting’s Birthday

March 1, 2018Simon Pettet

[“Basil Bunting and Allen Ginsberg in Tom and Connie Pickard’s flat, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, 22 May, 1965.]

Today is Basil Bunting‘s birthday.

We feature a guest posting today from poet and Bunting editor and scholar, Don Share

On Thursday, March 1, 1900, Basil Bunting was born in Scotswood-on-Tyne in the north of England. Bunting’s life extended through a large part of the twentieth century, beginning just as Queen Victoria’s long reign was nearing its end, and ending in 1985, the year the first mobile phone network in the UK was established and the internet Domain Name System was … Read More

Ginsberg-Taylor-Orlovsky-Pickard 1979 Warwick continued

January 21, 2017Simon Pettet

ginsberg-taylor

[Allen Ginsberg and Steven Taylor, 1979]

Allen Ginsberg, Steven Taylor, Peter Orlovsky and Tom Pickard reading at Warwick University, November,  1979  continues from here

AG: Steven Taylor, please favor us with a song (Steven Taylor being a poet as well as being a musician)

ST: I’m going to sing a song that I wrote after first reading the poetry of Anna Akhmatova, the Russian woman poet who was banned by (Joseph) Stalin’s government in 1929 and was not published after that time. She identified with the wife of Lot in the Bible, who was turned … Read More

Warwick 1979 (Ginsberg-Orlovsky-Taylor-Pickard)

January 14, 2017Simon Pettet

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[Steven Taylor, Allen Ginsberg & Peter Orlovsky. Photo: Saul Shapiro]

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[Tom Pickard]

Last week, we featured a 1979 reading (November 6 1979) by Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky (and Steven Taylor) in Warwick, England. This week a further concert from that same visit (this time at the University and featuring the active participation of the English poet Tom Pickard)

Audio for this occasion may be accessed here

Student/Organizer: We welcome to Warwick, Allen Ginsberg, Steven Taylor, Peter Orlovsky and Tom Pickard

AG: We’ll begin with music from a book called Mind Breaths, Poems 1972-1977, by myself, Allen … Read More

March 1 Birthdays – Lucien Carr & Basil Bunting

March 1, 2014admin

Basil Bunting

[Basil Bunting (1900-1985)]

[Lucien Carr (1925-2005)]

Two strangely contrasting birthdays, celebrated today (strangely contrasting? – or maybe not). We’ll draw your attention to fairly comprehensive initial postings on each of our two subjects of study – Basil Bunting – here  and Lucien Carr – here First, the latter. Due to the success of Kill Your Darlings, (out in America on DVD later this month), from a quiet unassuming back-seat, Lucien, (at least in the Dane DeHaan version), has been catapaulted to, clearly unwanted and unsought for, global notoriety, slandered (the movies can do this, even if it is just … Read More

Basil Bunting (1900-1985)

March 1, 2012admin

[“Basil Bunting and Allen Ginsberg in Tom and Connie Pickard’s flat, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, 22 May, 1965.]

Allen Armstrong writing in the Sunday Sun 23 May 1965 described the scene: ‘Mr Bunting, a Newcastle journalist, and one of Britain’s foremost modern poets, was sitting at the time, on the settee next to Ginsberg. America’s original “Angel-headed hipster” flopped forward and lay with his head in Bunting’s lap. He giggled. Bunting smiled. The young admirers laughed”

[ Basil Bunting: A Northern Life, Richard Caddel and Anthony Flowers, New Castle Libraries, 1997]

England’s great literary modernist, Basil Bunting was born on … Read More

More Ginsberg on Pound (1980 class transcription)

November 1, 2011admin

[Ezra Pound, poet, Rutherford, New Jersey, at the home of William Carlos Williams, June 30 1958 – photo by Richard Avedon]

More on Ezra Pound (who passed away 39 years ago).

Here’s transcription of remarks by Allen (from a 1980 NAROPA class)

AG: ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound. How many know of that (book)? Yeah, I recommend taking a look at it or buying it, reading it, it’s a little anthology, its like a teaching anthology to hit high points and special effects in. (turns to student) – do you know it, Mike?.. have you read it? … Read More