counting backwards

Ezra Pound, “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley Parts II, IV and V” recorded in Cambridge, Mass., 1939

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I stumbled upon a Web site with recordings of Ezra Pound reading his poetry while fact checking for an article on artist Cheri Ibes. She’s an installation artist, and her latest exhibit in Sacramento takes its name from a line in Pound’s “Canto XIII.”

I never studied Pound in college, but hearing his work now, I think I would’ve really liked it then. He sounds like Gandalf reborn as a 20th century modernist. I love the bit about laughter from dead bellies.