GIORNO, John. The Dial-A-Poem Poets.

(New York, NY): Giorno Poetry Systems, 1972. First edition. Double LP Album. In 1968, Giorno created Dial-A-Poem placing ten landlines connected to reel-to-reel answering machines in a room in New York City’s Architectural League. In its first four-and-a-half months of operation, Dial-A-Poem logged 1,112,237 incoming calls, including some from listeners overseas. (The original phone number was 212-628-0400.) The hours of heaviest traffic suggested that a lot of bored office workers were sneaking a little poetry into their 9-to-5 day. The idea inspired a number of spin-offs such as Dial-A-Joke, Dial Sports and Dial-A-Horoscope. This volume includes: A1 – Allen Ginsberg: Vajra Mantra 2:00, A2 – Diane Di Prima: Revolutionary Letters Nos. 7, 13, 16, 49 7:07, A3 – William Burroughs: Excerpts From The Wild Boys 6:53, A4 – Anne Waldman: Pressure 4:00, A5 – John Giorno: Vajra Kisses 8:20, B1 – Emmett Williams: Duet 1:50, B2 – Ed Sanders: Cemetery Hill 4:08, B3 – Taylor Mead: Motorcycles 1:52, B4 – Allen Ginsberg: Green Automobile 1953 6:30, B5 – Robert Creeley: The Messenger For Allen Ginsberg, I Know A Man 1:17, B6 – Harris Schiff: Poems 3:53, B7 – Lenore Kandel: Kali 2:20, B8 – Aram Saroyan: Not A Cricket 0:09, B9 – Philip Whalen: Excerpt From Scenes Of Life At The Capitol 3:07, B10 – Ted Berrigan: Excerpt From The Sonnets 2:35, C1 – Frank O’Hara: Ode To Joy, To Hell With It 4:52, C2 – Joe Brainard: Excerpt From I Remember 4:03, C3 – Clark Coolidge: Small Inventions: Suite V (Plurals) Secante, Suite IV 2:07, C4 – Jim Carroll: Excerpts From The Basketball Diaries 3:33, C5 – John Cage: Mushroom Haiku 4:55, C6 – Bernadette Mayer: These Stories About After The Revolution 1:50, C7 – Michael Brownstein: Geography 6:40, D1 – Brion Gysin: I Am That I Am 2:45, D2 – John Sinclair: The Destruction Of America 5:38, D3 – Anne Waldman: Holy City 2:05, D4 – Heathcote Williams: I Will Not Pay Taxes Until 4:50, D5 – David Henderson: The Louisiana Weekly No. 1 Ruckus Poem Part 12:00, D6 – Bobby Seale: Excerpt From Fillmore East Speech 3:10, D7 – Kathleen Cleaver: Excerpt From Fillmore East Speech 3:10 and D8 – Allen Ginsberg: Blake Song: Merrily We Welcome In The Year 4:30. A very good example with jacket photos and design by Les Levine.