John Giorno: Suicide Sutra (1973)

An important warning before you listen: Do not push play if you are suicidal, off your medication or are having a really hard time of it right now. Especially don't push play if you have access to a firearm.

This disturbing piece was written by New York poet John Giorno (born 1936) and appeared as a piece on his Dial-A-Poem phoneline which he founded in the late Sixties. People could ring in and hear poems by many writers, aomg them William Burroughs, Patti Smith, Ed Sanders, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Creeley, Amiri Baraka, John Cage, Anne Waldman, Jim Carroll and Laurie Anderson. Over a million calls were logged in the five months it ran in New York.

You can still hear some of the readings here.

There were a number of albums released of the poets, many of whose work was political.

There were also cutting edge sonic experiments and readings to music.

Needless to say many of them pushed the boundaries of language and so there was inevitable controversy.

This seven minute piece would certainly be upsetting to some of fragile emotional disposition.

Hence the warning.

And you have been warned. 

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