John Wieners: "A Poem for Record Players"

Since the last blog entry a couple days ago concerned conventional issues of typography in the typeface of traditional poetry books, I thought I’d balance that post by presenting this creative and playful electronic typographical presentation of poetry I found. The video is inspired by a John Wieners poem, “A Poem for Record Players.” The text of the poem originally appeared as follows:

A POEM FOR RECORD PLAYERS

The scene changes

Five hours later and
I come into a room
where a clock ticks.
I find a pillow to
muffle the sounds I make.
I am engaged in taking away
from God his sound.
The pigeons somewhere
above me, the cough
a man makes down the hall,
the flap of wings
below me, the squeak
of sparrows in the alley.
The scratches I itch
on my scalp, the landing
of birds under the bay
window out my window.
All dull details
I can only describe to you,
but which are here and
I hear and shall never
give up again, shall carry
with me over the streets
of this seacoast city,
forever; oh clack your
metal wings, god, you are
mine now in the morning.
I have you by the ears
in the exhaust pipes of
a thousand cars gunning
their motors turning over
all over town.

—John Wieners