John Giorno Put Poetry on the Line
In iconic works like his "Dial-a-Poem," the artist offered a moment of sustained attention, a sense of relation, a novel perspective.
LOS ANGELES — Through a sleek, ergonomic handset, the voice of poet Diane di Prima recites “Revolutionary Letter #7” (1971), in which she imagines a million earthworms tunneling under society’s oppressive structure until it falls. Press another button on the touch-tone phone resting on the round white table, and you may hear Frank O’Hara promising that “We shall have everything we want and there’ll be no more dying,” or John Giorno observing that “the meeting of the two minds is the awareness of the space they are sharing together.”
