unworldly love that has no hope of the world that cannot change the world to its delight

At about 22 minutes in this July 1987 class on Williams by Ginsberg, he talks about what he calls "Paterson: The Wanderer (A Rococo Study)," although in other places on the web I only see it referred to as "The Wanderer: A Rococo Study." Nevertheless, Ginsberg describes it as the early poem (1914? 1917?) that explains "how [Williams] got to be the great poet of Northern Jersey." Also in this file: Wordsworth and spots of time, Williams and Zen ordinary mind ("If you want to get high, don't; if you want to get high, get down"), Williams as super8 artist super haiku artist sound haiku artist.

Benevolent Indifferent Attention

A small fragment and continuation of an earlier Ginsberg talk on Williams, this file touches upon Williams and Buddha mind, the "naive" poetics of Marsden Hartley, the capture of raw perception, green armpit writing, and dodging the social brain. Ginsberg starts in a particularly winning way, then seems to get rattled by a question that sends him into a train of truisms about particulars and universals, but then towards the end, he gets back into his groove, but the question is, is his "groove" a manifestation of social brain or buddha mind? Is this distraction the moment when poetics has a chance to "converge upon mindfulness?" Or is it less to be found in his routine, and more in the clacking of folding chairs in the last seconds of the file? By the way, I'm wondering how the buddha mindfulness flashing in the moment of first capture really relates to a "poem is a machine made of words"?

Mindfulness of Detail

More trundling thru Naropa archives. I'm reminded how great a teacher Ginsberg was, how highly conscious he was of the language he was using even as he was talking about it, his tools no dull calipers, but perhaps language on language, lipping further. extracting excaliber? even with the mechanics of meter, a blast from the grammar school past, which takes up the bulk of this file, he brings the foot back to the dance. Anapest, trochee, and dactyl. Mouthing and the breath stop where idiot winds go. By the time he gets through all these meters that Williams doesn't do, you get a better sense of what he actually does.

Naropa on Williams

Following up on our last post, Ginsberg starts this lecture on Williams with a discussion of smell.
Since starting this project, I haven't gone back to the online Naropa archives to discover or revisit any references to Williams. It seems there is quite a bit here to work through. I definitely need a new iPod, the collision of which with archive.org instigated my first access to the intellectual life of this western haven (which, while exerting a fascination, was always either too expensive or too distant to get a taste of). I'll report on any particularly juicy findings as I work through this deterritorialized detritus. Of other talks here, some of my favorites are Peter Warshall on red squirrels and the cosmos, anything by Burroughs or Peter Lamborn Wilson. I would steer clear of the Harry Smith recordings, which I kept giving a chance, but they never came through; they are poorly recorded, and, in addition, because near the end of his life, were mumbly and incoherent. Sadly. (If anybody can find anything in the Smith materials to disabuse me, please pass on.)
(Of interest: Naropa Remix.)