The Voice of the Poet

THE VOICE OF THE POET
A remarkable series of audiobooks, featuring distinguished twentieth-century American poets reading from their own work. A first in audiobook publishing--a series that uses the written word to enhance the listening experience--poetry to be read as well as heard. Each audiobook includes rare archival recordings and a book with the text of the poetry, a bibliograohy, and commentary by J. D. McClatchy, the poet and critic, who is the editor of "The Yale Review."
"To hear a poem spoken in the voice of the person who wrote it is not only to witness the rising of words off the page and into the air, but to experience an aural reenactment of exactly what the poet must have heard, if only internally, during the act of composition. THE VOICE OF THE POET recordings deliver these pleasures as they broadcast the pitch and timbre of many of the major voices in twentieth-century poetry."--Billy Collins, U.S, . Poet Lauerate.
Frank O'Hara (1926-1966) was the James Dean of American poetry--glamorous, moody, witty, tragically killed in his prime and an iconic presence ever since. From the start, he was a charismatic figure, a friend to painters and poets, and the brilliant center of a Manhattan circle of artists who changed the course of American culture in the 1950s and 1960s. And his "I-do-this-I-do-that" poems of the cosmopolitan life remain as fresh and urgent as they were when he wrote them. Here for the first time, O'Hara's recorded legacy has been gathered together to provide a vivid portrait of a dazzling poet. The sublime ease and exquisite daring of his poems, their heart-on-the-sleeve spikiness, their saucy glamour--all of his gifts can be heard on this unique collection. His art was all fast-forward. Fasten your seatbelts for the exhilarating ride!