Bill Marsh (Dead Letter Game)
-in from San Diego- and I just spent a good
part of the weekend talking about-
guess what? Starts with a b and
ends with a g and rhymes with
logging and flogging. Anyway,
more on that later. By the
way, well-balanced, thoughtful
man that he is, he found lots
of time to talk with Toni about
art, so she took the three of us
on one of her famous
brief tours of the Metropolitan
Museum, including the wonderful
Philip Guston show- a "must see."
Bill Marsh read at the Bowery Poetry
Club on Saturday. He read from
a collaboration he did with Steve
Carll based on the Tao Te Ching. It
is an inspired work and Bill is an
excellent reader. A number of others
read (they are listed on
my sidebar to the left)
including Jen Hofer, John
Wilkinson, Prageeta
Sharma (who was introduced by
Lisa Jarnot) and Daniel
Bouchard. Let me tell you, Subpress
makes beautiful books (every one
of them sport mysteriously attractive
covers, by the way) and I bought
a stack of 'em (discounted for the
event, of course). My booty included:
*a day in the life of p.* by kari
edwards, a book I have been looking
forward to reading for a long time-
I am long familiar with kari edwards'
writing from the Suny/Buffalo poetics list.
I've already read parts of the book
and I like it a lot. For some reason
it reminds me of Valery's *M Teste*.
Terrific. I enjoyed hearing John
Wilkinson read who is from the UK
and who introduced his reading
by saying it would be hard to
recreate his punk rock attitude
from the 70's. As a reader of
-fait accompli- you might know
how I enjoyed hearing this bit
of time travel- so I purchased
his "Oort's Cloud."...
Lucky me, with Lisa Jarnot sitting
right there to request a discount for me,
I scored - I am just noticing at this
moment-a signed (!) copy of her new CD
*Ring of Fire* with vocals by Lisa
Jarnot, accompanied by
musicians Jermiah Hosea
Landess, Eric Eigner, Ivan Katz and
Kirk Douglas. (Imj67@hotmail.com)...
Even though I had one moment
between readings as Jen Hofer
was leaving I managed to introduce
myself to her.
No time to get her to sign her
book *Slide Rule*:, which includes
a number of lettered "corporeal manifestos":
"Things are not o.k." By means of
a spontaneous swap I am also now
the proud owner of a a copy of
Daniel Bouchard's *Diminutive Revolutions*.
This book contains his unforgettable,
and perhaps to some, unforgiveable
"Pax":
"I make a pact with you, venerable LangPoets-
I have studied your works long enough.
I look back on you as an honorable bunch
Laying new asphalt over old roads."
Wow! That oughta set a few hearts
thumping, including my own. Also,
Dan Bouchard offered me a copy of his mag
*The Poker* (Fall 2003) which contains
a review of Anselm Berrigan's *Zero Star Hotel*,
work by Alan Davies and
an exciting, if paradox-studded interview
with the inCOMParable Kevin Davies:
Marcella Durand: Great. Your poetry
makes me happy.
Kevin Davies: What, are you nuts? But
I'm glad to hear that. I was just over at
a friend's house listening to Kenneth
Koch and Allen Ginsberg improvising a
ballad. Have you heard that? That made
me feel something approaching *happy*
in a normal person.
**
This town was crammed
with poets *and* bloggers this
weekend. I hear
Eileen Tabios and
Arthur Sze had
a fine event in Manhattan
at around the same
time as the BPC events
this Saturday. All kinds
of marathons around
here.
(via Venepoetics (Guillermo Parra))
