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I came across First Baby Poems by Anne Waldman on my bookshelf not long ago and opened it to find an old Amtrak train ticket from the early 1980s—bookmarking the page with the poem, Sonne. I remember the first time I heard First Baby Poems; it was at a reading Anne was giving—maybe at the Gotham Bookstore—anyway wherever it was I was enthralled. What could be more compelling than a poet writing about having and raising her baby boy?
I asked Anne if I could record her reading from First Baby Poems, and she said yes. We met at her childhood home where she still lives on MacDougal Street. Though Houston is only a block away and noisy with booming trucks and ambulances, when she began to read her loving lyric poems—I call them songs—that come so naturally to her, timeless and as new as when I first heard them (or the day you were born), Houston Street quieted down. Dear reader, I am convinced NYC wants you to hear First Baby Poems. Enjoy.
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https://vimeo.com/263754362
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First Baby Poems (with collages by George Schneeman) has been republished by BlazeVOX[books]. You can check them out here:
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