Epic Poetry Readings
Like a story "around a campfire." - The Audience
"Certainly wowed the crowd at the library with the performance and the words themselves." —Albany Poets News, New York
The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem is a global, universal epic poem, speaking to the entire planet, in both hardcover, ISBN: 9780982677889, and eBook formats, eISBN: 9780982677865. Earthrise Press, November 2012. 294 pages. Hardcover and ebook editions on Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and global affiliates, etc. For a Free sample chapter, BOOK I, from The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem, click PDF.
YouTube Playlist (To access all the readings on this page directly on YouTube or view below. )
In 1977, Glaysher took a theatre course in the Interpretative Reading of Poetry, learning that the Greek rhapsodes would travel throughout ancient Greece reciting Homer. Before long the idea of writing an epic poem became compelling and the dream that one day he might also revive the art of the rhapsode.
Performing Black Elk at Theatre NOVA, Ann Arbor, MI. September 22, 2019:
Epic Poetry Reading at Troy-area Interfaith Group's Authors' Night, Troy, Michigan. 11 minutes.
Hosted by Central Woodward Christian Church, Troy, Michigan. October 1, 2018.
The Farmhouse, Village of Franklin, Michigan. March 22, 2018. 15 minutes.
Black Elk and Chief Seattle, Poet-Prophet Job on the Holocaust.
Funded by Poets & Writers, Inc.
Reading from The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem. Best Selections 2015 - 2017. An epic shaman tale or chant, a story, a Journey toward healing the psyche of the planet, drawing from and evoking all of the great spiritual and wisdom traditions and regional civilizations.
If the old exclusivisms evolved into the exclusivism of the Enlightenment, from the moon, together, we can see universality...
As a global epic tale, I am speaking to the entire planet, not merely the Western world. While the whole is always more than the sum of its parts, I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to such writers and thinkers as the historian Arnold Toynbee, Carl Jung, Huston Smith, Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, and many others of open and universal sensibility. Campbell and Mircea Eliade, especially, wrote on shamanism and myth and their power to heal the tribe through a visionary, ecstatic experience and tale. Campbell also wrote repeatedly about the overview Image of Earthrise, rising above the horizon of the moon, as the great new mythic Image and Symbol for our time.
At Crazy Wisdom Bookstore. Saturday, 7:00-9:00 PM, May 13 and June 10, 2017.
At Crazy Wisdom Bookstore. Ann Arbor, MI. May 13, 2017. 7:00 PM. Reading from The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem, a shaman-like tale or chant for our time, a Journey toward healing the psyche of the planet. Since 2014, I’ve read at Crazy Wisdom five times, for the poetry, shaman, and story-telling groups; and since my epic is over 9,000 lines, I thought I’d invite people here tonight for a little longer taste of it than merely 5 or 10 minutes, for more of a sense of the story as a shaman Journey drawing from and evoking all of the great spiritual and wisdom traditions and regional civilizations.
As a global tale, I am speaking to the entire planet, not merely the Western world. While the whole is always more than the sum of its parts, I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to such writers and thinkers as the historian Arnold Toynbee, Carl Jung, Huston Smith, Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, and many others of open and universal sensibility. Campbell, especially, wrote on shamanism and myth and their power to heal the tribe through a visionary experience and tale. Campbell also wrote repeatedly about the overview Image of Earthrise, rising above the horizon of the moon, as the great new mythic Image and Symbol for our time. I hope that my epic tale might be judged worthy of the best in their thinking and work.
For Poetry Month, Robert Hayden, Space Traveler,
and an Epic Poetry Reading. Saturday, April 22, 2017. 1:00 - 2:30 PM.
Detroit Public Library, Main Branch. Fine Arts Reading Room, 3rd Floor. 5201 Woodward Ave, Detroit, MI 48202.
In addition to speaking on Hayden and reading from some of his poems dealing with themes about outer space, Glaysher reads two excerpts from his epic poem The Parliament of Poets, in one of which Hayden is a character, the other set in a village in East Congo, where rape has been used as a weapon of war, with Sogolon, a character from the Mali epic Sundiata.
Reading from Into the Ruins: Poems and The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem. November 30, 2015.
Hosted by M. L. Liebler, Poet and Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.
Funded by Poets & Writers, Inc.
Poets & Pies Series: Special Holiday Edition. Hannan Cafe. Off campus at Wayne State University, 4750 Woodward Ave, Detroit, Michigan 48201. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLUhnbp4QVs&index=1&list=PL21F9D6C4DA6FE818
Epic Poetry Reading
From the beginning of Book I, in medias res.
The Birmingham Unitarian Church (UU), Birmingham, Michigan, April 6, 2013.
Like a story "around a campfire." —From the Audience.
Poetry Reading from Into the Ruins: Poems, Birmingham Unitarian Church. March 31, 2014.
The flight of the Persona to the moon, with his guide, the poet Robert Hayden. Robert Hayden Centennial Conference and Poetry Tribute. The University of Michigan, Rackham Amphitheatre, November 1, 2013.
Reading from The Parliament of Poets at the Birmingham Unitarian Church (Unitarian Universalist), Birmingham, Michigan, April 6, 2013. 1:11 hour and minutes. From BOOK I, BOOK II (Black Elk and Chief Seattle; Japara, Australian Aborigine), and BOOK VI (Buddhist Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China). The last several minutes include questions and answers on epic poetry, world religions, and other background material and reflections. https://youtu.be/Gq71Y8fYes8
The preceding reading is edited into five excerpts in terms of the theme of the canto and the following Q&A:
BOOK I, on the moon, in medias res. The very beginning of the epic. 11 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Z1PVjYmIw&list=PL21F9D6C4DA6FE818
BOOK II, Black Elk and Chief Seattle. The beginning of BOOK II. 8 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbds8knBkKQ&list=PL21F9D6C4DA6FE818
BOOK II, Japara, Australian Aborigine. The end of BOOK II. 13 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY2ZLG1q8Is&list=PL21F9D6C4DA6FE818
BOOK VI, Buddhist Mogao Caves. About half of the canto on Buddhism. 12 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzRdUqqi6Do&list=PL21F9D6C4DA6FE818
Epic Poetry Questions & Answers. 17 minutes. April 6, 2013. Birmingham Unitarian Church, Birmingham, Michigan. Epic poetry, world religions, Chinese Neo-Confucianism, Modernism, East and West, Homer, epic form and meter, global, universal vision, universal consciousness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMAn9c2WE4s&list=PL21F9D6C4DA6FE818
Reading at the end of the Epic Poetry Workshop. Copyright (c) 2012 Frederick Glaysher. Excerpt (1) from BOOK I, published in the *di-verse-city* 2012 Anthology for the Austin International Poetry Festival, 20th Anniversary Celebration Edition.
"Participate" in an Epic Poetry Workshop, presented by Frederick Glaysher, at the Austin International Poetry Festival, AIPF, September 29, 2012.
Reading from the eighth draft of my epic poem The Parliament of Poets at the Austin International Poetry Festival, September 28, 2012, in Austin, Texas, at BookWoman, a feminist bookstore.
Reading at Barnes & Noble, at the Austin International Poetry Festival, AIPF, September 29, 2012. Copyright (c) 2012 Frederick Glaysher.
Reading at the Albany Word Fest, Saturday, April 21, 2012, in Albany, New York, at the Albany Public Library. 15 minutes. Copyright (c) 2012 Frederick Glaysher.
"I found myself sitting in my study, dozing
over a book, Cervantes’ Don Quixote,
surrounded by volumes of world classics...."
Albany Poets News, Thom Francis, Feb 8, 2013. "If you were at the 2012 Albany Word Fest Open Mic at the Albany Public Library you will remember Frederick Glaysher and his epic poem The Parliament of Poets. His work certainly wowed the crowd at the library with the performance and the words themselves...."
Reading from my epic poem at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair, Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum, Buffalo, New York, March 24, 2012, from Book III, in medias res. 12 minutes. Copyright (c) 2012 Frederick Glaysher.
"Who needs warp drive when I've got Queen Mab,
My escort and midwife of my dreams."
I'd welcome invitations to read from The Parliament of Poets.
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