Poet William Corbett read before an audience of approximately 45 people in the New Writing Series on Thursday, March 18, 2010. Corbett began his set with selections from James Schuyler’s Other Flowers and concluded with poems by—and in dialog with—Philip Whalen. He also read from his own collection Opening Day, a “documentary poem” on Willem de Kooning, and “Tokyo Travel Diary.”
The event was recorded on digital videotape by Carey Haskell and as a wav file on a Zoom H4n digital audio-recorder by Steve Evans.
Photo sets of Corbett’s reading and a class visit are available on the NWS Flickr page.
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Set List —compiled by Jason Canniff in consultation with the author
Introduction by NWS coordinator Steve Evans
Corbett reading from Other Flowers: Uncollected Poems of James Schuyler
“Gifts”
“From the Island”
“Poem: The day gets slowly started”
“Things to Do When You Get a Bad Review”
From Corbett’s Opening Day
“CUE”
“Through gloom of a mid-November morning”
From Corbett’s documentary poem titled “De Kooning”
“Sunday Drive”
“At Black Mountain”
“Woman I”
“De Kooning”
from Corbett’s chapbook Poems On Occasion
“For Gerrit on His 75th Birthday”
“Cowboy Up”
“Tokyo Travel Diary”
from Corbett’s “The Whalen Poem”
Philip Whalen’s “Hymnus ad Patrem Sinensis”
Sampling from Corbett’s “The Whalen Poem”
Letter from Philip Whalen to Tom Raworth
Corbett’s closing poem
“Two Glasses of Malt Scotch in the Rain”
Questions and Answers with Audience Members
Advice for poets?
How do you know when a poem is finished?
What has remained constant in poetry since the days of Li Po?
UMaine New Writing Series 