Billy Collins’ listening party: The Poetry Center celebrates 80 years

Mar 21, 2019

If you haven’t been to a poetry reading in the last 80 years, this is a great way to catch up,” said former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins, introducing his “Listening Party” on March 11, an event to mark the Unterberg Poetry Center’s 80th anniversary featuring recordings of poets who graced 92Y’s stage in the second half of the 20th century. For months, Collins prepared his mixtape by listening to countless recordings from the Center’s vast audio archive. Here are selections from his collection of voices.

Commentary on public performance
“Unreal City” section of The Waste Land

“when god decides to invent”
“when faces called flowers”
“A Sort of Song”
“The Yellow Chimney”

“The Mind is an Enchanted Thing”
“Their Lonely Betters”
“The Painter”

“Child on Top of a Greenhouse”
“Amorous Lady”
“The River That is East”

“For a Russian Poet”
“The Flaw”

“Aunt Jemima”
“Those Winter Sundays”
“Morning Swim”

“To Living in the City”
“The Toad”

“The Tolland Man”

“Reading Ovid”
“Hurry”
“The Race”

“Corners,” “Starblock” and “The Excluded Animals”

“The Catch”
“when you have forgotten Sunday”

“Wild Geese”

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