T.J Anderson Reads Bob Kaufman

Proff. T. J. Anderson is an associate professor of English at Hollins University. He is the author of Last Round Up and Notes to Make the Sound Come Right: Four Inovators of Jazz Poetry and has written extensively on jazz poetry and African American literature.

Bob Kaufman (1925-1986) was a surrealist/beat poet most known for his activity in the late 1950's and early 1960's in the San Fransisco Bay area. Known in France as the American Rimbaud, he co-founded Beatitude Magazine and is considered by many to be the quintessential jazz poet of his generation. His spoken word poetry comes to us largely because of the work of his wife Eileen Singe who transcribed his readings.

Anderson is seen her at the Water Heater in conjunction with the Roanoke Marginal Arts Festival. He is accompanied by Matt Ames on guitar. Later, Post-NeoAbsurdists Brad Chriss and Olchar Lindsann join him for a simultaneous scat poem. Anderson caps off the reading with two of his own poems.


T.J. Anderson reads Bob Kaufman at the Water Heater, Roanoke VA, 2/21/09 from PNA-Video on Vimeo.



On

On yardbird corners of embryonic hopes, drowned in a heroin tear.
On yardbird corners of parkerflights to sound filled pockets in space.
On neuro-corners of striped brains & desperate electro-surgeons.
On alcohol corners of pointless discussion & historical hangovers.
On television corners of cornflakes & rockwells impotent America.
On university corners of tailored intellect & greek letter openers.
On military corners of megathon deaths & universal anesthesia.
On religious corners of theological limericks and
On radio corners of century-long records & static events.
On advertising corners of filter-tipped ice-cream & instant instants
On teen-age corners of comic book seduction and corrupted guitars,
On political corners of wamted candidates & ritual lies.
On motion picture corners of lassie & other symbols.
On intellectual corners of conversational therapy & analyzed fear.
On newspaper corners of sexy headlines & scholarly comics.
On love divided corners of die now pay later mortuaries.
On philosophical corners of semantic desperadoes & idea-mongers.
On middle class corners of private school puberty & anatomical revolts
On ultra-real corners of love on abandoned roller-coasters
On lonely poet corners of low lying leaves & moist prophet eyes.

by Bob Kaufman