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Maureen Owen


Photograph © Kyran Owen-Mankovich

Reading from Poets on the Road with Barbara Henning, May 27, 2023

Watch on Media.sas

Reading with Kimberly Lyons and Barbara Henning, Unnameable Books, Brooklyn, October 26, 2022

Reading at POG Tuscon with Barbara Henning, February 16, 2019

Complete Recording (1:21:14): MP3

Reading with Barbara Henning and Ashley Smith Keyfitz at Malvern Books, Austin, TX, February 2, 2019

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Reading for Belladonna* with Barbara Henning at McNally Jackson Williamsburg, January 18, 2019

Complete recording (1:06:10): MP3

No Title: Jazz & Poetry on the Occasion of the Clyfford Still Museum, 2012

  1. Days & Nights (1:44): MP3
  2. Something happened this weekend (1:12): MP3
  3. for Edwin Deby (0:13): MP3
  4. She had ruby red lacquer on her fingernails (1:03): MP3
  5. sexuality because of sexism is a problem for most women (0:40): MP3
  6. Poem to Piss Everyone Off (0:38): MP3
  7. The little dwarf boy (0:15): MP3
  8. Winter is so      punk. (1:37): MP3
  9. in my dream (0:14): MP3
  10. "To be without humor is to be
                            without intelligence." (2:44): MP3
  11. The inevitability of Gradualism (0:19): MP3
  12. In June (1:11): MP3
  13. Coming by foot across 109th (1:27): MP3
  14. Trash Stars (0:56): MP3

These poems can be found in the following books:
The No-Travels Journal (Cherry valley Editions 1975): She had ruby red lacquer on her fingernails; Coming by foot across 109th
a brass choir approaches the burial ground (Big Deal 5 1977): Something happened this weekend
Hearts in Space (Kulchur Press 1980): Poem to Piss Everyone Off; The little dwarf boy; "To be without humor is to be / without intelligence"; In June
Zombie Notes (Sun Press 1985): Days & Nights; for Edwin Denby; Winter is so     punk.; in my dream
Imaginary Income (Hanging loose Press 1992): sexuality because of sexism is a problem for most women
Untapped Maps (Potes & Poets Press 1993): The inevitability of Gradualism; Trash Stars

Recorded at the Dikeou Collection, Denver, by Rachel Cole Dalamangas. Mixed by Raphael Fiorda

Reading from Edges of Water (Chax Press 2012), Poetry Project, St. Mark's, New York City, March 30, 2011

  1. introduction (2:52): MP3

  2. The indigo blue head scarf poem (1:35): MP3

  3. hear
     sounds of    beads of    sweat       drying
              make sorrow better

    (0:55): MP3

  4. everything turns on a delicate measure

                   was it the same night they were to meet
                   or had the night already passed

              how fragile was the night they were to meet
              never mentioned again

    (1:36): MP3

  5. Whales started small



    blotches of verde

    horse carrying in its teeth  resilience    through black

    (0:53): MP3

  6. the lioness  with a cacophonous fan

    or  learning noise


    that same person over and over
    who we are     in defiance of fools
    sleeping in wisteria

    (1:15): MP3

  7. Blind         I see you
    Putting on a show

               or identity hankers   to reign forever

    In the gardener's house there is someone
    entering the house of someone by that name
           entering the house of the garden

    (1:25): MP3

  8. clothesline (0:37): MP3

  9. to our foreheads   shaking


               poorly built ruckous of howling   abstraction
               or it could be dangerous for me to leave my sight

    (1:06): MP3

  10. What made the scholar holler
    Was her love of Mozambique

    (0:43): MP3

  11. Why                        that day
     except that in it we took a walk
                                                              by a choking ocean

    (0:44): MP3

  12. Star-crossed cermanic lovers end it all
                                                                  or scrubland

    (1:00): MP3

  13. antecedently

    by previously
    born from

    before

    (1:05): MP3

  14. rough boys carried the lilacs in (0:54): MP3

  15. Lorine threw the dish at the door


    That couldn't have been

    (0:42): MP3

  16.                             my neighbors relax on their flat southwest porch
                                chatting in Spanish           Just
                                like I always wanted my neighbors to do


       Christian monasteries and Ottoman mosques

       or                      there arrives the fitful pinched

    (1:37): MP3

  17. flowered napkins thrown over baseball caps Lawrence of Arabia style
     riding double on the pinto rocking horse          chanting

                   "We are weirdos traveling in a weird world."
                         —Benjamin and Jacob ages 6 and 4



    Consider the skipping
                                              for Wallace Stevens after Anecdote of the Jar

    (1:21): MP3

  18. she rarely    took the bridge (1:58): MP3

  19. howled and   trilling

                   Will there be rapids?

         or              a fava bean shaped pool

                   he mailed the year straight unto the tongue

    (1:05): MP3

  20. Not a triptych
    not an accidental


                scrambled on a wrinkled

    (0:37): MP3

  21. ...the beauty of the air         So tonic draught intensity a liquid         or

                                                                                            when you were dead

                                                                                            will I still always   be here

    (1:13): MP3

  22. losing our sense of nostalgia

                                                          or

                                  exploding houses

    (0:48): MP3

  23. ambient
                     or blister chic

    (1:04): MP3

  24. perforated with apertures for archers
    in coffee and carpet shops

    (0:58): MP3

  25. created from local materials               like dirt

    or visitors sometimes wept   on the bedroom threshold

    (1:22): MP3

  26. Cricket   katydid        Cicada (0:54): MP3

  • Complete reading (33:05): MP3

Reading at Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee, March 24, 2011

  1. Introduction (01:48): MP3
  2. Plaudit Or, She Found Herself Mesmerized by the Hand Gestures of the Mourners (01:48): MP3
  3. Now This Vague Melancholy (01:52): MP3
  4. I'm Not Alone (00:17): MP3
  5. A History of English Speaking Peoples Or, Tea in the Shape of a Kite and Medusa's Hairdo (03:34): MP3
  6. Now, Even the Jungle Wanted Him Dead Or, She Closed the Door Behind Her (01:35): MP3
  7. Her Hat Blew Off, It Happened A Long Time Ago When You Were Small (01:26): MP3
  8. I Fell In Love (00:17): MP3
  9. Whenever I Snow and Goodbye To the Twentieth Century (02:14): MP3
  10. Number 5 (01:55): MP3
  11. Flax Straw Broom On A Long Handle Or, Perles Among Hoggs (02:23): MP3
  12. Darkness Sprang The Swans From The Shellacked Pond Or, Blue Cerulean, A Kind of Plum, Blue Gum Veins Through Skin Steel At Twilight Thin Milk Vapor Over A Soggy Ground (02:43): MP3
  13. Nox Or, The Boys Are Rightly Pale Or, A Study in Snow (01:52): MP3
  14. Secrets Of The Cover Girl Or, The Fair and Square Silk Ribbon In The Middle Of The Road (01:38): MP3
  15. I Can't Imagine What Is Keeping Me Up Or, A Slab Of Vision (02:31): MP3
  16. A Moroccan Sun Visits Connecticut (00:29): MP3
  17. Oh Over Every Life Sized Drought Or, A Solid Interval Between Crenels And A Battlemented Parapet Or, Just Say No (01:20): MP3
  18. Fvsh'ot Fash'on Fashion (00:32): MP3
  19. The Wounded Day (01:25): MP3
  20. Introduction to Soap Bubble Set, 1936, Or That's When She Said Does It Matter Which Is Which (0:26): MP3
  21. Soap Bubble Set, 1936, Or That's When She Said Does It Matter Which Is Which (2:24): MP3

POG Sound, University of Arizona Writing Center, Tucson, November 17, 2007

Photograph © Barbara Henning
  • Complete reading (31:58): MP3

Belladonna* Reading Series, New York, March 13, 2007

  • Introduction (3:59): MP3
  • Complete reading (25:50): MP3

The Poet & Painter Series presents Maureen Owen and Yvonne Jacquette, Kelly Writers House, March 24, 2004

  1. Complete reading (24:50): MP3
  2. History of Collaboration (8:28): MP3
  • Complete recording (51:59): MP3

Reading for the Segue Series at Double Happiness, May 20, 2000

  • Complete recording (32:21): MP3

Belladonna* Reading Series, New York, March 30, 2000

  • Complete reading (20:42): MP3

Reading from Barbara Guest's Seeking Air, Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, January 25, 1986

(with Susan Howe and Barbara Einzig)
  1. Seeking Air, 7 (1:19): MP3
  2. Seeking Air, 19 (1:43): MP3
  3. Seeking Air, 28 (3:12): MP3
  4. Seeking Air, 63 (0:49): MP3
  5. Seeking Air, 102 (0:21): MP3
Complete program (30:27): MP3

Reading at SUNY-Buffalo, February 8, 1985

  • Introduction (2:39): MP3
  • Complete reading (32:00): MP3

Reading with Charles Bernstein at the Ear Inn, NYC, March 11, 1984

  1. Introduction (1:44): MP3
  2. If I had a father (0:22): MP3
  3. For Edwin Denby (0:12): MP3
  4. Lauren certainly has the right name (0:11): MP3
  5. Big John's Lilies (0:23): MP3
  6. What Comes In the Mail Will Have Its Affect on the Heart (0:27): MP3
  7. Hammer (0:12): MP3
  8. It is evening (0:49): MP3
  9. To fly into a rage (0:42): MP3
  10. We Can't Find The Traitor But Of Course He's Staying Right Here in London at the Windsor Hotel (2:04): MP3
  11. Around here the tide consists entirely of water (1:13): MP3
  12. Every Day (2:05): MP3
  13. It must have been late already when we started (0:28): MP3
  14. I thought she said "There's a bullet hole in my skull the size of Detroit" (1:43): MP3
  15. Dreamed up over your hair and eyes (2:03): MP3
  16. Stone Letter in a Pot (0:55): MP3
  17. Poems Without Names, or, Your Plane Takes Off (1:19): MP3
  18. from AE (8:29): MP3
  19. from Minnesota Maps (4:47): MP3
  • Complete reading (30:59): MP3

Reading for the Droll/Kolbert Gallery Series, January 10, 1980

Reading for the Bloomsday Readings Series, St. Mark's Church in the Bowery Poetry Project, February 24, 1980

with Bob Holman

Reading for Emily Dickinson's Birthday Celebration, St. Mark's Church in the Bowery Poetry Project, December 10, 1979

  • Complete reading (10:07): MP3

This recording is from the Maureen Owen Collection of Greenwich Village Poetry, at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Reading for the St. Mark's Church in the Bowery Poetry Project, December 17, 1978

This recording is from the Maureen Owen Collection of Greenwich Village Poetry, at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Reading for the Segue Series at the Ear Inn, New York, December 9, 1978

  1. Introductory comments (0:55): MP3
  2. Coco in the Freezer (0:57): MP3
  3. To Charles Reznikoff (2:08): MP3
  4. Soaring (0:28): MP3
  5. The Airplane Story (3:54): MP3
  6. Aviation (0:13): MP3
  7. In the air (2:19): MP3
  8. A Heart That's Been Broken (1:07): MP3
  9. Postscript to the Rest of My Life (1:02): MP3
  10. The Bed of Tulips and the Electric Firefly (2:53): MP3
  11. These are Cottonwoods (2:49): MP3
  12. The Kidnapping (0:34): MP3
  13. The Origin of Haiku (0:13): MP3
  14. The Merry-Go-Round (0:19): MP3
  • Complete reading (20:30): MP3

Appearing with Robin Messing on Public Access Poetry, New York, February 28, 1978

Reading in Hartford, CT, June 3, Year Unknown

with Carole Spearin McCauley

  • Complete reading (15:42): MP3

This recording is from the Maureen Owen Collection of Greenwich Village Poetry, at the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Reading at St. Mark's Poetry Project, Date Unknown

  • Complete recording (4:56): MP3

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2023 Maureen Owen. Used with the permission of Maureen Owen. Distributed by PennSound.