Correspondence #55: Vanessa Vie

Not to be sneezed at?

The late Michael Horovitz was one of a number of notable UK poets who appeared on the bill of the International Poetry Incarnation at the Albert Hall in London 60 years ago in June 1965.

Musician, poet and visual artist Vanessa Vie, Horovitz’s partner for a decade or more prior to his passing in 2021, takes some issue with Miles’ comments in Rock and the Beat Generation’s recent anniversary interview with the Beat historian…

Email, June 11th, 2025

Dear R&BG,

Michael never ever insinuated the International Poetry Incarnation in ‘65 had been a Live New Departures event! (And I have found nothing in his archives that denoted thus [anyhow to anyone] /:: however I did find plenty of references to the preliminaries heading toward the event and of Michael’s involvement).

Michael went on to SUCCESSFULLY perform the ‘Sneeze’ poem many times after he performed it with [Pete] Brown and [Ernst] Jandl.

It is sad to hear Miles saying that most of the poets performing were bad or mediocre apart from three or four.

Anyway…there are so many versions of the same event…

Regards,

Vanessa Vie

Editor’s note: The sneezing device mentioned was originally incorporated by Dada artist Kurt Schwitters in his sound poetry of the interwar years

See also: ‘Interview #38: Miles’, June 11th, 2025