Robert Duncan - Part 3

Robert Duncan 1919-1988
Robert Duncan was a prominent Bay Area poet and public intellectual with a world audience--an outspoken gay man long before there were civil rights for gays and a poet whose influence ranged from San Francisco Renaissance Beat to Black Mountain and left its mark on the new American poetry widely anthologized and discussed from the 50s through the 70s and beyond. A remarkably erudite man with encyclopedic knowledge which might best be summarized by a remark Bobbie Louise Hawkins (at the time, Mrs Robert Creeley) made to me when she visited class the week before. “I was mesmerized to hear him talk when I first encountered him, “ she told me, “and I thought to myself, ‘This is wonderful! I’ll remember everything he is saying for the rest of my life!’ and then, 15 or 20 minutes later, my head was spinning , and I thought, ‘I’m never going to be able to remember any of this.’”
In this video, Duncan will explain the musical component of his poetry as well as some of the ways he came to compose various well-known works. He will also sing. Listen as he addresses the political and cultural issues of the day and don’t miss his reading of the amazing poem, “My Mother would be a Falconress.”