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This online catalog represents a portion of the American Poetry Archives 4,000+ hour collection, and is centered on some 2,000 original video-recordings made from 1973–2002. Not included here are most early audio recordings, 1954–73, and recent digital video-recordings, subsequent to 2002. This listing is provided as a public service, and indication of the extent of the American Poetry Archives collection.

POETRY CENTER DIGITAL ARCHIVE features digital versions of select early audio recordings from 1954 forward, with further works to be migrated online incrementally.

PLEASE NOTE: Because of technical issues involving ongoing access to fragile original master-tapes, frequently in antiquated formats, many of the recordings listed here are not readily available for general public access. While we are in the process of migrating our extensive collection online—a multi-year project—public access to recordings not yet available online must be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Mary O'Malley: November 8, 1997
(see Group Readings, Irish Poets at Bay Area Book Festival)

Intelligence Om: October 24, 1980
(see Group Readings, Rebound Project Benefit Reading)

Michael Ondaatje: October 29, 1983
45 minutes.
Michael Ondaatje reads his poems "The Space in Which We Have Dissolved, Does it Taste of Us," "Walking to Bellrock," "Pure Memory," "All Along the Mazino," "Uswetakeiyawa," "Bessie Smith at Roy Thompson Hall," an excerpt from "The Elimination Dance," an excerpt from his memoir Running in the Family, and the poems "Sweat Like a Crow," "Travels in Ceylon," "The Cinnamon Peeler," "Funny Karma," and "Monsoon Notebook," at SFSU.

Oku Onuora: November 30, 1988 55 minutes.
Jamaican poet Oku Onuora performs "I Want to Write a Poem," "Change, Yes, Change," "Pressure Drop," "We Are Gone," "Sunshine," "Defiance," "Reflection in Red," "Beat Your Drums," "We'll Keep On," "Tears," "Bust Out," "Thinking," "Decolonization," "Yesterday Today Tomorrow," "The Triumph Makes Me Regain Composure," "I Write About," "The City at Night," "No Way to Go," "Earth a Blaze," "Words," "Education," "Can't Wait," "The Painter," "What a Situation," and "Black Spectacle." Muata Kenyatta introduces Oku Onuora.

George Oppen & Charles Reznikoff: February 19, 1963
54 minutes.
Original Poetry Center Archives recording.

George Oppen: February 22, 1973
14 minutes.
Note: original tape quality is poor
George Oppen reads his poems "Song, the Winds of Downhill," parts of "Some San Francisco Poems," and "The Lever The Die The Cam" from Seascape: Needle's Eye. Robert Duncan shares the program, at SFSU.

George Oppen 75th Birthday Tribute: April 24, 1983
(see Group Readings)

Mary Oppen: November 29, 1978
45 minutes.
Mary Oppen reads an excerpt from her autobiography, Meaning a Life, and passages from a journal kept during a 1975 trip she and George Oppen made to Israel. Michael Palmer shares the program, in the Barbary Coast Room, SFSU.

Mary Oppen: December 3, 1987
50 minutes.
Mary Oppen reads from her autobiography, Meaning a Life. Frances Phillips introduces Oppen and poet Anita Barrows, at San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.

Peter Orlovsky: September 28, 1978
50 minutes.
With John Cassidy on guitar, Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky sing William Blake's "Spring" and "Tyger." Orlovsky also reads "America, Give a Shit!" "Feeding Them Raspberries to Grow," and from his manuscript Clean Asshole Poems & Smiling Vegetable Songs, "Trying My Best to Walk Around Paris," "Someone Liked Me When I Was Twelve," and "My Mother Memory Poem," at SFSU.

Francisco Orrego: April 11, 1991
(see Group Readings, "Voces del Mundo")

Simon Ortiz: November 19, 1975
55 minutes.
Simon Ortiz is a poet from Acoma Pueblo in New Mexico. His works have appeared in many magazines and anthologies, including The Man to Send Rainclouds, The American Indian Reader and Carriers of the Dream Wheel. Lewis MacAdams introduces Ortiz, in this early reading, along with Richard Osborn Hood, at SFSU.

Alicia Ostriker: November 12, 1980
30 minutes.
Poet and editor Alicia Ostriker reads from the first and third sections of The Mother Daughter Papers. Frances Mayes introduces Ostriker and Louise Bernikow, at SFSU.

Alicia Ostriker: March 17, 1983
32 minutes.
Alicia Ostriker reads "My Lecture to the Writing Students," "Female Writing," "The Mother Daughter Papers," "Propaganda," "The Change," "The Crazy Lady," "The Exchange," "The Demonstration," "Water Lillies and Japanese Bridge," "Anecdote With Flowers, 1919," "Homage to Dante," and "Taking the Shuttle with Franz." Frances Mayes is at SFSU.

Alicia Ostriker: February 12, 1998
30 minutes.
Poet Alicia Ostriker reads from The Crack in Everything, which received The Poetry Center Book Award for 1996. Jewelle Gomez introduces Ostriker and Toi Derricotte, at First Unitarian Church.

Maureen Owen: March 31, 1976
30 minutes.
Maureen Owen reads "Love Song for T.," "Poem to Piss Everyone Off," "Measurements," "There Are Too Many of Me," "Here in the Country," "See," "Survival Song," "Digging Sassafras in July," "There's No Gold in the Kitchen," "Honesty," "Symmetry," "Fed Up," "Postcard," "Orange Flowers," and other poems. Lewis MacAdams introduces Owen, Rebecca Brown, and Rebecca Wright, in The Barbary Coast Room, SFSU.

Maureen Owen: April 12, 1984
33 minutes.
Poet Maureen Owen reads "Some Lines in the Style of Sappho," "For Edwin Denby," "Tacky," "In My Dream My Grandmother," "Stone Letter in a Pot," "To Fly Into a Rage," "African Sunday," "Saint Mark's Newsletter Poem," "Saran Wrap," "Standing Beauty With Sleeve in Her Mouth," "We Can't Find The Traitor But Of Course He's Staying Right Here in London at the Windsor Hotel," "Poems Without Names, or, Your Plane Takes Off," "The Horse's Heart," "A Piece," "Just Come Home When You Need to, or, How Does Light Get Between the Stars if There's No Electric-Magnetic Forces in Space?," "Days and Nights," "Novembers or Straight Life," "The Aviator's Dream," untitled selections from Amelia Earhart, and "It's All About Space and Claustrophobia." Kaye McDonough is in the Student Union, SFSU.

Rochelle Owens: October 29, 1987
30 minutes.
In a Poetry at the Gallery event, poet Rochelle Owens reads "Poem for Werner Jaeger" and "Let Us Honor Them The Cliches Which have Got Us All By The Throat," from Salt & Core; "Wild-Man Counts His Perfections" and "Wild-Woman & The Vegetation," from Joe 82 Creation Poems; "Anthropologists At A Dinner Party" and "And I Gave My Brief Turbulent Mad Genius Legend" from How Much Paint Does the Painting Need. Frances Phillips introduces Owens and George Quasha, at San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.