This is a somewhat unique experiment I originally began in 2002-2003. I took recordings of some of my favorite poets reading their own work and mixed them into songs that I felt either fit the tone or added to the theme of the poem being read.

The result is 15 tracks of poets such as Allen Ginsberg, Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, Czeslaw Milosz, Randall Jarrell and Frank O’Hara reading their work to songs by musicians like The Beatles, Nirvana, The Doors, New Order, Philip Glass, and The Pixies as well as some lesser known groups. I even included a comedy bit by Lenny Bruce set to some Jimi Hendrix from one of my zanier experiments; and while it could be argued that good comedy is a form of poetry, in this case, I was just trying something different.

The tracks are difficult to describe. They’re similar to mash-ups in that they each incorporate two different recordings that were never meant to go together, but they don’t contain two or more songs overlapping each other like most mash-ups. I’ve simply taken a poetry reading and mixed it around a song.

My main goal in sharing these mixes is to reach people who wouldn’t ordinarily read one of these poems on the page and hopefully open them up to the kind of work that’s out there.

Check out this interview for more information on the origins and creation of this project.

You can download individual mp3s of all 15 track below (just right-click and “Save Target/Link As”) or download them all in a single zip file.