Summary

Noted poets James Dickey, Muriel Rukeyser, and Peter Viereck discuss the rage for poetry readings on college campuses, reactions of the students, and the meaning of the revival of interest in having poets read their works. Each poet reads one of his or her own poems. 1965. Noted poets James Dickey, Muriel Rukeyser, and Peter Viereck discuss the rage for poetry readings on college campuses, reactions of the students, and the meaning of the revival of interest in having poets read their works. Each poet reads one of their own poems. 02:00 INTRO: MacAndrew speaks about poetry readings flourishing as never before, the listening to of poetry, and the poets who now travel so much. He introduces James Dickey, an "astonishingly gifted," Guggenheim award winner who is a professor at San Fernando Valley, California University; Muriel Rukeyser, a poet and prose writer, who can now ignore the whole "critical circus… poetry is not dead"; and Peter Viereck, poet, historian, social philosopher, and professor of Russian at Mount Holyoke. 15:00 INTERVIEW: MacAndrew quotes John Quincy Adams, "We must learn arts of war so our children can learn engineering, so their grandchildren can learn arts." Dickey: Arts are not the products of a leisured class. Poetry is permanently accessible to the soldier, the engineer, etc. Poetry was as vital then as now. Rukeyser: Young audiences are very intense and sometimes embarrassed at enjoying poetry even though they need and long for it. The have a desire for form and a desire for love. Dickey: The traveling poet reveals the eternal themes - the possibility of love and the inevitability of death. These are almost youth's only concerns. Uncertainties are strong in the young and poetry deals with these uncertainties… love and death. The young want individuality and not a niche in the outer world in which to live and die. During college they want to hold on to themselves and feel what they're supposed to feel. That's poetry. Poetry is genuine response and genuine feeling about emotion and occurrence. The young feel poets understand. The poet hasn't the answers to problems, but he gives the spectacle of a person interested in his own responses to problems. Viereck: It's a pack of rotten lies to say there's more interest in poetry now that poetry readings are popular. It only means status. Poetry readings today are what gold cadillacs were… People don't like poetry anymore now than before. It is a status symbol, that's all. The young are hugging poetry to death in the U.S.A. But, in the USSR people really love poetry. Poetry is protest, not status or chic tongue-in-cheek. It's a revolt. Rukeyser: Flattery isn't so bad - like cigarettes- if you don't inhale. People want to know what has happened, poets tell them events and react to the events. "It's an exchange of consciousness" bringing the poem through to them. Viereck: "like furniture from Finland, a new kind of status." Dickey: Poetry hasn't value as status. Don't discount the possibility of it being a real experience. The young are groping. My motive in writing poetry is not status but to speak to another human being. Viereck: Poets today are cautious. In USSR poets take risks and end up in camps. Beatniks are cautious. They are the lap dogs of the bourgeoisie. Viereck attacks San Francisco poets. Rukeyser talks about women as poets. The critics treat them as an image for something. 2:00 READING: Dickey reads "The Night Pool" about a man and a woman in a swimming pool at night. It is a love poem. Her body in my arms, but not drowned… we rise out into our land bodies… wrap her in towels. 1:45 READING: Rukeyser reads part 12 of "Outer Banks" in North Carolina where Hart Crane wrote, "Wright Brothers Flew", etc. Dark young living people sing: More song and you're under arrest… edge of moment is the center… reference to Selma. 3:00 READING: Viereck reads "First Morning" about the world's birthday and Auschwitz, two things --courage and love … what am I here for if not to make love songs… say 'yes' to the breezes… Dig your graves, we're going to shoot you… (This is a bitter poem, and Viereck intones a la russe and with fire) Dickey says "cause poems" date very quickly, but they're therapeutic. Real poets are more concerned with our own inner life. Rukeyser says, poets and young people have a wish for direct speech. Viereck won't let the program end on a positive note, as MacAndrew vainly tries. He says MacAndrew is "the bland leading the bland". Poets: James Dickey, Muriel Rukeyser, and Peter Viereck