In 1969, in response to a request to participate in an exhibition at the Architectural League in New York, Giorno (a poet, artist, and activist) devised this work. Among the first telephonic artworks, Dial-a-Poem allowed the public to access an archive of recordings of work by contemporary poets; by calling a local telephone number, participants could hear a well-known poet like John Ashbery or Allen Ginsberg recite a short poem selected at random by a primitive answering machine system. A year later, Giorno created an expanded version of the work for Information, an exhibition of Conceptual art at The Museum of Modern Art. The Museum provided four phone lines through which to access the work, and it was estimated that, by the close of the show, a quarter of a million people had called in to hear a poem. Giorno extended Dial-a-Poem into the 1970s and 1980s, producing five LP records under the label John Giorno Poetry Systems that include works by established poets like Ashbery and young artists and musicians such as John Cage, Patti Smith, and David Byrne. This current version of Dial-a-Poem includes the 30 original poets featured in Information, plus 50 culled from Giorno’s subsequent recordings.

Vito Acconci

  • “Hello.” 2:05
  • “There, Then.” 1:52
  • “Pronouncing.” 1:25
  • “Hair, Forehead.” 2:06
  • “Small.” 2:00

 

Kathy Acker

  • “I Was Walking Down the Street.” 2:30

 

Helen Adam

  • “Cheerless Junkie Song.” 2:45

 

Miguel Algarin

  • “Setanta y Cinco Abriles.” 1:43

 

Laurie Anderson

  • “Born Never Asked.” 4:30
  • “Closed Circuits.” 7:26
  • “Dr. Miller.” 4:22
  • “It Was Up in the Mountains.” 2:49
  • “For Electronic Dogs.” 3:14
  • “Structuralist Filmmaker.” 1:12
  • “Drums.” :30

 

Penny Arcade

  • “Two Poems.”

 

John Ashbery

  • “Definitions of Blue.” 1:48
  • “Civilizations and Its Discontent.” 1:56
  • “The Tennis Courty Oath.” 1:58
  • “Our Youth.” 1:49

 

Amiri Baraka

  • “Our Nation Is Ourselves.” 4:42
  • “Wailers.” 4:45

 

Bill Berkson

  • “Stanky.” 1:36
  • “Leave Cancelled.” 1:30
  • “Sheerstrips.” 1:40

 

Charles Bernstein

  • “Wall As.” 2:48

 

Ted Berrigan

  • “Flying from London to New York.” 1:48
  • “Report” and “Things to Do in New York City.” 1:58
  • “To Jack Kerouac.” 0:55
  • “Excerpt Memorial Day.” 3:53

 

Joe Brainard

  • “I Remember the Day when Joe Kennedy Was Shot.” 1:46
  • “I Remember Sack Dresses.” 1:45
  • “I Remember Liberace.” 1:49
  • “I Remember What I Thought if You Do Anything Bad.” 1:49
  • “I Remember When Fiber Glass.” 1:36
  • “I Remember Organ Music.” 1:47
  • “I Remember My First Attempt at a Three-some.” 1:55
  • “I Remember That My Father Scratched His Balls a Lot.” 1:40

 

Michael Brownstein

  • “This First Is Called Legend of the Stone Outlaw.” 1:45
  • “Time & Space.” 2:08

 

William Burroughs

  • “Twilight’s Last Gleamings.” 2:56
  • “Benway.” 0:43
  • “The Laboratory Has Been Locked for Three Hours Solid.” 2:14
  • “From Here to Eternity.” 3:51
  • “I Was Traveling with the Nova Kids on the Intolerable Lark.” 8:39
  • “The Do-Rights.” 3:39
  • “Ah Pook Is the Mayan God of Death.” 12:36
  • “When Did I Stop Wanting to Be President.” 7:12
  • “The Chief Smiles.” 6:53
  • “The Green Nun.’ 3:34

 

David Byrne

  • “Song for the Trees (or) Sometimes I Think the World Is Wrong.” 3:25

 

Cabaret Voltaire

  • “Ride Baby Ride.” 7:13

 

John Cage

  • “Shall I Give Up Mushrooms and Study Trees.” 2:09
  • “In Connection with Space Travel.” 1:45
  • “Earth a City as Paris Was.” 1:20
  • “U.S. Citizens Are 6% of the World’s Population.” 1:20
  • “People Always Want to Know What You’re Doing.” 2:00
  • “Here We Are Now.” 1:57
  • “Eventually Everything Will Happen at Once.” 2:00
  • “We’re Getting Rid of the Habit We Had.” 2:00
  • “Music’s Not Waiting.” 1:58

 

Jim Carroll

  • “The Scumbag Machine.” 1:55
  • “The Basketball Diary February 4 1965.” 1:59
  • “August 7 1965.” 1:27
  • “November 6 1962.” 1:45
  • “This Is Part of a Diary from 1962.” 2:01

 

Nick Cave

  • “The Atra Viago.” 5:40

 

Tom Clark

  • “Little Aria.” 0:38

 

Clark Coolidge

  • “Dews (2-Channel Version) Excerpt.” 1:52
  • “Saying Excerpt.” 1:56

 

Gregory Corso

  • “Marriage.” 7:20

 

Jane Cortez

  • “I See Chuno Pozo.” 6:20

 

Robert Creely

  • “The Name.” 1:14

 

Diane Di Prima

  • “Revolutionary Letter #3.” 2:05
  • “Revolutionary Letter #5.” 1:52
  • “Revolutionary Letter #7 & 12.” 1:48
  • “Revolutionary Letter #13 & 20.” 2:06
  • “Revolutionary Letter #16 & 18.” 1:55
  • “Revolutionary Letter #21 & 22.” 1:44

 

Ed Dorn

  • “Recollections of Grand Apacharia.” 4:28

 

Robert Duncan

  • “To Speak My Mind, We Convivial in What Is Ours.” 2:40

 

Kenward Elmslie

  • “Easter for Joe.” 1:50

 

Karen Finley

  • “Party Animal.”

 

Four Horsemen

  • “The Dreams Remain.” 2:35

 

Diamanda Galas

  • “Eyes without Blood.” 2:42

 

Allen Ginsberg

  • “Why Is God Love Jack After Yeats.” 1:33
  • “Morning.” 1:53
  • “I’m a Victim of Telephones.” 1:34
  • “Mantras Hare Krishna.” 2:00
  • “Shiva.” 2:05
  • “CIA Dope Calypso.” 4:00

 

John Giorno

  • “Berlin & Chernobyl.” 1:30
  • “Hi Risques.” 1:55
  • “Just Say No to Family Values.” 2:30
  • “The Death of William Burroughs.” 7:30
  • “Everyone Gets Lighter.” 2:00
  • “There Was a Bad Tree.” 10:21
  • “Thanx 4 Nothing.” 9:24

 

Daniela Gioseffi

  • “Eggs.” 5:07

 

Philip Glass

  • “A Secret Solo.” 2:17

 

Barbara Guest

  • “Doorbells, Passage.” 2:00

Brion Gysin

  • “I Am That I Am.” 1:58
  • “Kick That Habit.” 1:04
  • “Like You Just Said.” 1:55
  • “But Then the Question Is…In the Words of the Divine Tautology”.
  • “Junk Aint No Culture Junk Aint No Good.” 2:00

 

Jessica Hagedorn

  • “Tenement.” 6:35

 

Deborah Harry

  • “Moroccan Rock.” 4:22

 

Bernard Heidsieck

  • “Canal Street #4.” 1973

 

David Henderson

  • “In Summer Homes Near Water Barges.” 1:44
  • “Election Day Poem.” 1:22
  • “Berkeley Fall 1968.” 1:32
  • “Ruckus Poem, Louisiana, New Orleans 1967, Part 1.” 2:00
  • “Ruckus Poem, Louisiana, New Orleans 1967, Part 2.” 1:40
  • “Ruckus Poem, Louisiana, New Orleans 1967, Part 3.” 1:47
  • “Three Poems for Malcom X.” 1:45

 

Bob Holman

  • “When I’m Talking There Is Something I Have to Tell You…” 1:40
  • “Rap It Up.” 5:31

 

Hüsker Dü

  • “Won’t Change.” 1:52

 

Lenore Kandel

  • “This Next Poem I Really Hadn’t Planned to Read Tonight. Poem for Tyrants.” 1:58
  • “This Poem Is Entitled Independence Day.” 2:05

 

Kenneth Koch

  • “Spring.” 1:33

 

Denise Levertov

  • “Life at War.” 3:15

 

Frank Lima

  • “The Hunter.” 1:36

 

Jackson MacLow

  • “4 A Symmetries from 1960–1961.” 1:57
  • “6 Symmetries from 1960–1961.” 1:50

 

Bernadette Mayer

  • “It Was Finished in Rose Velvet.” 1:45
  • “It Moves across the Ground.”
  • “The Red Rose Does/The Red Rose Doesn’t.” 1:55
  • “Studying Hunger.” 3:31

 

Michael McClure

  • “Lion Poem.” 2:08

 

Taylor Mead

  • “Motorcycles.” 1:52
  • “I Have Entered a Permanent Zonk.” 1:59
  • “Where Do You Buy Love?” 1:59

 

Frank O’Hara

  • “This Poem Is from the Love Poems. Having A Coke with You.” 1:58
  • “I Am Frank O’ Hara, Chez Jane.” 1:39
  • “Ode To Joy.” 2:05
  • “To Hell with It.” 2:00
  • “Naptha.” 1:38
  • “The next two poems are walking around New York type of poems…” 1:47
  • “To the Film Industry in Crisis 1.” 2:00

 

Maureen Owen

  • “Body Rush.” 0:52

 

Ron Padgett

  • “Falling in Love in Spain & Mexico.” 1:55
  • “Wonderful Things” and “Limerick.” 1:32
  • “After the Broken Arms Words for Joe Vceravoulo.” 1:49

 

Miquel Pinero

  • “New York City Hard Times Blues.” 7:40

 

Lennox Raphael

  • “Ok the Morning of November ’67.” 1:32
  • “The Evil Eyes on the Floor.” 1:23
  • “Shalom Dream Visit.” 1:55

 

Rene Ricard

  • “Famous at 20.” 2:53

 

Jerome Rothenberg

  • “Horse Song #11.” 2:00

 

Aram Saroyan

  • “Here’s a Poem That Sort of Happened By Getting into Concrete Poetry.” 1:40
  • “What Didn’t You Understand.” 2:00

 

Peter Schjeldahl

  • “To the National Arts Council.” 2:09
  • “Life Studies.” 1:35

 

John Sinclair

  • “I’m Going To Read a Love Poem.” 1:43
  • “It’s Called the Destruction of America 2.” 1:50

 

Patti Smith

  • “Parade.” 6:07
  • “7 Ways of Going from the Histories of the Universe.” 7:43

 

Gary Snyder

  • “Anasazi, Wild Mushroom, One Should Not Speak To.” 6:00
  • “What You Should Know to Be a Poet.” 3:35

 

Sonic Youth

  • “Halloween.” 5:02

 

Jack Spicer

  • “Excerpt from Billy the Kid.” 3:34

 

Lorenzo Thomas

  • “High Heel Jesus.” 1:22

 

Tony Towle

  • “Daybreak.” 1:34
  • “Voice 1968.” 1:32

 

Paul Violi

  • “Whalefeathers.” 1:52

 

Andrei Vosnesensky

  • “I Am Goya Song of Moscow Ancient Bells.” 5:55

 

Tom Waits

  • “The Pontiac.” 2:03

 

Diane Wakowski

  • “Everything Boils Down To Diamonds Sometimes Even My Knees Smile.” 2:12
  • “Sometimes Even My Knees Smile.” 2:02

 

Anne Waldman

  • “What Is It? Late Mescaline Sonnet Dark Command.” 1:50
  • “How the Sestine Yawn Works.” 1:35
  • “Fast Speaking Woman.” 5:32

 

Lewis Warsh

  • “Home.” 1:35
  • “Song.” 2:06
  • “Shawdows Good times.” 1:32

 

Philip Whelan

  • “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich.” 1:56

 

John Wieners

  • “To Martyrium Candidatius.” 1:40
  • “Memories in a Small Apartment.” 4:36
  • “In Public.” 0:55

 

Emmett Williams

  • “Do You Remember When I Loved.” 1:44
  • “A Fragment Preserved for Sentimental Reasons.” 1:58
  • “Duet.” 1:43

 

Frank Zappa

  • “The Talking Asshole Naked Lunch.” 5:27