John Berryman 1974 documentary biopic

I Don't Think I Will Sing Any More Just Now, a film by Carol Johnsen

[@anonymouslakernerd7214]

Berryman was the greatest teacher of my own greatest teacher, Philip Levine. In this regard, I owe much to the man. Thank you for posting this video.

[@matthewschwartz6607]

He was a very troubled man.

[@anonymouslakernerd7214]

@@matthewschwartz6607 As am I. What does your comment have to do with mine?

[@matthewschwartz6607]

@@anonymouslakernerd7214 - I hope that you’re not. Berryman was an alcoholic who killed himself. He was disturbed

[@peterjonas4971]

@@matthewschwartz6607 True, but poets don't have a monopoly on such people. The work he left us is what remains; we might say that, in spite of his troubles, he wrote heroically.

[@sterlingwalter5971]

​@@matthewschwartz6607what's your point? Be stupid?

[@brian_nirvana]

This content is culturally significant. Posting it on KZbin will ensure that future generations will have access to it and appreciate it. Thank you for sharing it.

[@pedrolopezgarrido]

Why you put the " " on yourself? like a quote, but a quote is used for someone Who are not you (Im sorry for speak english so poorly so badly)

[@brian_nirvana]

@@pedrolopezgarrido I don't know why I put quotations. And your English is just fine Pedro. I wish I could speak another language. I know a little Spanish.

[@brian_nirvana]

@@pedrolopezgarrido I fixed it Pedro.

[@robertvasquez240]

The previous commenter, anonymouslakernerd, mentions Phil Levine. Phil was also my one great teacher (I studied with him for five semesters at Fresno State U.), and I remember Phil giving a number of anecdotes about Berryman. Indeed, Phil said that Berryman was his one great teacher (and let me qualify that term "great": Picasso was a great artist who forever changed art not just in studio art but in the arts in general, including literature and film; Einstein was a great theoretical physicist who forever altered our understanding of the universe--those are examples of greatness). Phil and Fran often trusted me to house sit for them when they went on extended trips, and I was always happy to be in their circle of friends. And I came to appreciate how Berryman influenced Phil not just as a teacher but also as a human being. This video reminded me of just how fortunate I was to have known Phil and how Berryman impacted his former students like Phil who passed on to students what he learned from Berryman. It's a lineage in how to sing as human beings even if the songs are painful. I miss Phil's irreverent humor and his dedication to poetry and to the world of people around him.

[@nickandmikec]

Poor Berryman; he's obviously intoxicated in the scene at the restaurant at the beginning of the biopic. Such a fine poet and so obviously tormented.

[@hart60]

Thanks very much for posting this poignant doc. He is one of my favorite poets. This was very well for the 70s.

[@leekimble]

Thank you for posting this. I must have been 16 years old, some 45 years ago, when I first saw this on a Southern California PBS station and ever since came to hold John Berryman as one of my favorites. I've often wondered about this documentary.

[@maliceburgoyne495]

I don’t like him. I can’t finish Dream Songs. Those poems are like reading a witches spell book that’s actually real. He had some dark power no poet ever did. I’ll try reading again when I’m at a less fragile time in my life.

[@davidc.2878]

@@maliceburgoyne495 “witches spell book”-that’s pretty good. Try reading Homage to Mistress Bradstreet”-you will find it wonderfully strange but perhaps less disturbing than the Dream Songs.

[@dustykashifeathers858]

We Americans were and will never ever be ready for the genius of the Poet John Berryman✨✨✨ He is the Poet of Poets.✨✨✨

[@hart60]

Listening to this again is liking hearing it for the first time. Thanks again for posting this.

[@Markmywords803]

Fascinating! I have only just discovered his work via the great podcast-BACKLISTED.

[@michaelbenenson]

JB's "emotion in action" breathes on and inspires timelessly..........As happened with Alcman Ape, the first play about Berryman, or, rather, his adopter.

[@lengasparini2918]

He became a kind of amulet for me.

[@chriss9397]

In 1967 my first college essay assignment was to explicate Dream Song 23. I earned a C. I had thought literature "easy" to that point. It was part of a year of departure for me, a year of setting out to join what we called the real world. The political and personal strife that pressed on him became aspects of the world that I could look upon and acknowledge as my own, without having to experience them on my body. What Roman writer said, "I am human; nothing human is alien to me"? Nothing in Barryman's life and writing is alien to our humanity.

[@maliceburgoyne495]

Chris S Yeah, I discovered him a few years back. I’m convinced he was a top 3 all-time American poet. To me he had an authenticity about humans that Frost did with nature or Whitman did with Americana.

[@iona6489]

Tennessee Williams also said that “nothing that is human disgusts me.”

[@brian_nirvana]

That's awesome Chris

[@teresa380]

Discovered Berryman through HBO's Succession.

[@johnpaul5474]

Levine's essay, "Mine Own John Berryman," is a beautiful essay.

[@johnsenwithane]

Just found it and read it. Great lessons for aspiring poets. Thanks.

[@johnpaul5474]

+johnsenwithane You're certainly welcome. That collection, The Bread of Time," is very good, and Levine was a "great guy." I was at a reading he gave at Brown University back in the Eighties, and when he finished, the crowd rose as one and gave him a standing ovation, so startling the poor poet that he staggered backwards slightly,almost losing his balance. Such was my perception, anyway. Probably the best reading I've ever attended. All thanks to Mr. Levine.

[@written12]

I will check it out. Thank you so much.

[@brian_nirvana]

He Resigns by John Berryman Age, and the deaths, and the ghosts. Her having gone away In spirit from me. Hosts Of regrets come and find me empty I don’t feel that this will change. I don’t want any thing Or person, familiar or strange. I don’t think I will sing Any more just now; Ever. I must start To sit with a blind brow Above an empty heart.

[@brian_nirvana]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1">0:01</a> Dream Song 89 from The Dream Songs (1969) I love #89. If you read this song, #89, be sure to read #90 & #91, which ends Book 4 of The Dream Songs.

[@retsehcmaharg]

So many claim to have witnessed him jumping off the bridge . . . . . .

[@sterlingwalter5971]

A poet's supposed to create more psychic space, terrain, human reality. I think Berryman did that.

[@sibengerard1856]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="86">1:26</a>....DIVINE BEAUTY..HEAVEN AND EARTH IN HARMONY...

[@scottrc5391]

I believe in separating the art from the artist, but this is a documentary about the artist and I gotta say, he was very selfish to kill himself when he had four kids, including two pre-teens. And would it have killed him to do an interview sober for a change? He sounds like the guy we all know from the local bar.

[@sterlingwalter5971]

You're not wrong, but much more refined than the bar bore.

[@brian_nirvana]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="1">0:01</a> Dream Song 89: Op. posth. no. 12 by John Berryman In a blue series towards his sleepy eyes they slid like wonder, women tall & small, of every shape & size, in many languages to lisp 'We do' to Henry almost waking. What is the night at all, his closed eyes beckon you. In the Marriage of the Dead, a new routine, he gasped his crowded vows past lids shut tight and a-many rings fumbled on. His coffin like Grand Central to the brim filled up & emptied with the lapse of light. Which one will waken him? O she must startle like a fallen gown, content with speech like an old sacrament in deaf ears lying down, blazing through darkness till he feels the cold & blindness of his hopeless tenement while his black arms unfold.

[@brian_nirvana]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="521">8:41</a> I can empathize.

[@nononouh]

Books projected?

[@cresenciohernande6419]

Wickedness

[@paulfiore9852]

What do you mean by this?

[@terry4137]

@@paulfiore9852 exactly what he said, and I agree!

[@zoex7993]

I was really looking forward to the content of this video, but turned it off because the audio quality made it difficult to listen to.

[@SabatinoSmith]

Where has this been?!?!

[@johnsenwithane]

Got some notice in when it first came out - New York Times, PBS - but rarely seen since then.

[@laurelbailey4546]

I am a Berryman my maiden name that is and my father was melvin J. Berryman and my brothers name is John Berryman and according to ancestry my grandfathers name is John A. Berryman married to Sarah pinkney Scott Berryman. I was never told anything about my grandparents ?and I love to write and never not one time in 50 years had this man even been mentioned?My brother was an alcoholic as my father and his father was also. So if this man's real name and blood/DNA is Smith then how and why are they using facts of my life and my husband and my son's Curtis J .Berryman. And Ann Levine? Really I was represented by Paul Levine as my attorney now he's a judge! What is happening here? And Henry is my dad's oldest brother I have never met nor does he talk about them and" Bones" is a Nick name given to me from my sister and brother.? Martha is my father's sister that I have never met either.so my question is would this be a fabricated story of alleged truth or is it that this man somehow miraculously shared the some life what is really going on

[@laurelbailey4546]

Kate Berryman looks a lot like my oldest sister Brenda's daughter kathy? And John Angus?the ancestors say John Augustus? Divorce Eileen lol that's weird my husband got a divorce from Eileen and the Smith family only way I know anything about the smiths is the story passed down generation to generation my great great grandmother allegedly was a small child on the trail of tears and after they raped and massacred her parents she had wandered off so far from the trail that a family by the name Smith found this little girl and took this cheroker indian child and raised her the white man way and so we do not know much of our culture because of this. He raised her then married her? That is as far as I got they say there is only one picture of this woman, I still have yet to see. So I came up withmy own scenario according to Joseph Smith the founder of the Mormon religion married a woman last name" Mackey?" It's says " Lucy Mackey the reason I relate is because my mom went by " Lucy" most of her younger party life. My father raised me by himself I unfortunately did not even really know my mother until age 11? She moved to Tampa Florida just like this video says he did also.? It says he has an older brother and what's this name? And Sarah is the name of my grandfather so someone please help me figure out what is happening because I have been put down and drugged and jumped by 3 persons in pasco County a few years back they kicked me and bite marks on my back and shoulder I had face the size of the guy in the movie! And I'm pretty sure that Sarah Pinkney Scott is my great grandmother and since Levine's name is in this story why not Rick Scott the governor of Florida too. Is he related to Sarah and because my grandfather was a drunk asshole towards my grandma that I had no control over? They sentenced me to 4 years in prison! I was supppsed to get 11 months! First time drug offense they didn't offer any kind of program to get help nothing! I have fought this long time hatred since I was born...no wonder my sisters and brothers didn't want anything to do with me? What did I do? I can't help who my mother and father are? And I lost both of them in 2009 same month I got thrown in jail that same month! My son was left out here without his mother and grandmother and grandfather! Then while I was in there I receive a letter that sounded like my son wanted to end his Life! This man Mr. John Berryman? Is he a real legend m legendary poet? It looks like my nephew Frank Berryman son of my brother John Berryman that can't stand me and threatened me " I got a 45 that will take care of your bipolar disorder" yes that's what he said. So it's time...isee my wonderful family that hates me all because I'm my mother's daughter

[@brian_nirvana]

@@laurelbailey4546 I'm in the Berryman trap, too, dear. Just sit back and enjoy the Berryman.

[@nononouh]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="390">6:30</a>

[@johnsenwithane]

Hang in there.

[@ericmalone3213]

Berryman was as overexposed as he was untalented. Today, the work has dried up & peeled off. In lieu of true music, Berryman could only offer rhetoric. Berryman's biographer, Paul Mariani, published appallingly tin-eared poetry almost on par with his biographical subject. Time isn't kind to the academic roster.

[@fattymcfatso1083]

i completely disagree. I don't know why you'd base your opinion on his biographer. Maybe you find Berryman too complex. There are no easy answers in his poetry.

[@ericmalone3213]

@@fattymcfatso1083 Mr Fatty, you misunderstand what I'm saying. Berryman's work is lacking in musical depth, it is not complex, the poems can easily be assimilated on the first reading. E.G., "Dream Song #4" is both tone deaf and awful. Berryman's readings are awful, drunk or sober. Berryman's biographer published awful poetry of his own, he didn't have the skill set to objectively assess the quality of Berryman's work. Read Berryman's work next to Basil Bunting's work. Bunting's work is very musically complex; by contrast, Berryman's work is superficial. Please point to an example of Berryman's depth and complexity. CHEERS

[@fattymcfatso1083]

@@ericmalone3213 Of course I misunderstand you. it's the internet, jake. Everyone misunderstands everyone else. What else is new? Getting back to yer original comments - Berryman "overexposed". Huh? No one knows who the hell he is unless netflix or someone does a shitty bio, right? If it weren't for Nick Cave name dropping him - you me and a few others are the only ones who would even have an idea about Berryman. - DS #4 like all the early ones is brilliant. Gets right into the mind of the author without the usual poetic bs. I will check out Bunting. Hmm. Maybe something reminds me of Ol' Ezra. You like? - - Honestly seems like your gripe is with Mariani. But no one knows him. Just a biographer - maybe a critic. Read his Lowell bio - sloppy errors. Hamilton better. Also a new psychological bio on Lowell. Like Berryman - - both are in danger of being DISCOVERED by this generation. - - You know Berryman did a lot more than just the Dream Songs although that's what put him on the map. - Anyways . .

[@ericmalone3213]

@@fattymcfatso1083 Mr Fatso, "If it weren't for Nick Cave name dropping him - you me and a few others are the only ones who would even have an idea about Berryman. " Oh, no, Berryman is still prominent in academia, & he was a total academic. Are you of an Academic bent? Berryman was praised by academics, he won the Pulitzer prize, &c. He was very much lauded in his day. The people I've known who read Berryman have zero awareness of the works of Jack Spicer, Lorine Niedecker,, Basil Bunting, Louis Zukofsky, Bernadette Mayer, Ted Berrigan, Gerrit Lansing, et al. Poets who got MFA degrees from the Iowa Writers Workshop read Berryman but have no clue as to the aforementioned. Poets who are worth their salt have a broad range of awareness of poetry, which isn't based on likes and dislikes, but based on being informed. I look at tons of poetry that doesn't interest me, just so I know what people are doing. If you take Berryman's "Dream Song 4" for example, you can put it into prose and it makes no difference. As to poetic power, there's something I call "meaningful enjambment." E.g., take a look at Ted Berrigan's "Whitman In Black." Berryman's work is largely tone deaf & scansionless, & he was a horrible reader. As to Paul Mariani,. he was an academic hack, as Berryman was an academic hack (& Robert Lowell was an academic hack). "I will check out Bunting. Hmm. Maybe something reminds me of Ol' Ezra" "Basil Bunting was friendly with Ezra Pound, but their poetry is completely different. Between Bunting & Pound, Bunting is the better poet. CHEERS

[@matthewmorse5955]

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