Have Words Will Travel

Last night I took the train into the city to attend the Poets Forum reading put on by the Academy of American Poets.  It was the kickoff event for their big poetry weekend in NYC (most of which I’ll be attending and will report on here.)  They had all the current Chancellors reading, except Rita Dove who couldn’t be there.  Disappointing not to have seen her, but WOW, the poets who were there were outstanding.  The exciting part for me was seeing a few legends (Gary Snyder, C.K. Williams), as well as a couple of personal poetry idols (Sharon Olds and Robert Pinsky.)

A few observations:

• C.K. Williams wore a bright orange shirt with a red tie.  Very attention-getting!  He pulled it off, I must say.
• C.K. Williams also blew me away with the exquisitely executed musicality of his reading.  As my former mentor David Wagoner would say, “The ear was at work.”  Heh.
• Gary Snyder looked exactly like his photographs.  And was wearing brightly-colored stripey socks.  And an orange shirt.  Orange shirts must be all the rage among older gentlemen poets these days.
• Robert Pinsky gets an absolutely delighted look on his face when he likes what he’s hearing.
• Sharon Olds is the kindest, sweetest, and funniest woman ever.  I adore her.  Also, she read a poem called “Douchebag Ode” and brought the house down.

After the reading, I was able to speak with Sharon Olds for a moment and have her sign my book.  Despite my determination to be cool, I was a stammering dork.  Oh well.  She was very nice about me stumbling over my words as if I just learned to speak yesterday.  I also had a moment with Robert Pinsky (and was slightly less of an idiot), with whom I spoke to about Slate.  I love that he records each poet reading to post on the website with the poems.  He said he was happy to hear that because the poetry in Slate doesn’t get many hits and they keep threatening to cut it.  What a tragedy!  If you love poetry and want to see it out in the world where regular people can read it, I urge you to bookmark the Slate poetry page and click often.  At least once a week, will you?  Not only is the poetry there very often amazing, but it’s worth doing for the cause.

Pinsky also signed his book for me.  He used my favorite pen, which I received as a gift from my family when I graduated with my MFA.  I will never wash it again!  (Ha.)

Last night I attended the last of four Red Hen Press readings in New York, and it was outstanding.  (I went to the first reading as well–Friday night at KGB Bar–which was also wonderful.)  Being relatively new in town, I hadn’t yet been to the venue, The Cornelia Street Cafe, but it was charming.  I will definitely be back — they have stuff going on there every night, much of which is poetry-related or jazz, another favorite genre of mine, so it’s well worth the travel time for me.

All of the readers were excellent, but the one who stood out the most was Laure-Anne Boesselaar.  She knocked my socks off with the single, long poem she read, the name of which escapes me, but it was a poem that wove together a train ride to New Jersey from NYC and the speaker’s early childhood in a convent school and how much she longed for her mother.  The poem spoke to me in so many ways.  I believe it’s from her most recent book A New Hunger, which you can bet I’ll be acquiring posthaste.  I have the feeling I’m going to be very touched and inspired by her work.

Wow, what a lineup.  Due to a traveling spouse and small children at home, I will probably only make it to Friday and Sunday’s readings, but I’m guessing they’ll all be fantastic.

Once again, I have gone way too long without posting. This blog is relatively new, but I’ve blogged elsewhere for several years and believe me when I say it’s unusual for me to post so infrequently. I do want to keep this blog writing-oriented, but I will admit I’ve been dealing with some parental illness issues and it has really taken all my energy for several months. However, that is finally getting sorted out, and school will be starting soon (meaning my children will be entertained by someone other than myself), and I am now on day 3 of my final MFA residency before my graduation on Saturday, so I’m very much getting back into the rhythm of my writing life.

So far, the residency has been fantastic. The highlight thus far is Kate Gale, the Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Editor of Los Angeles Review, and accomplished poet in her own right, who has been guiding us graduating poets through the process of actually getting a book published instead of just single poems here and there. Of course, we will continue to do that as well, but it’s so great to have some guidance in terms of an actual plan. I’m nothing if not a girl who likes a plan. She’s been very inspiring to all of us, particularly in her argument that we should become players in the publishing world, not just people who want to be published but never give anything back to the community. It makes so much sense that I wonder at the fact that I haven’t been offered that advice before.

Last night was the first of two faculty readings and not only was Kate’s reading amazing (the woman can write, I’m just sayin’), but also the reading of another visiting faculty, Marc Acito, also known as “The Gay Dave Barry.” Holy crap, that man is funny. He had us in hysterics during his lecture the other day, and last night reading from his two books, How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater, and Attack of the Theater People did not disappoint. I bought both books based on his performance (and performance it was, including singing, which brought the audience to its feet) and am very much looking forward to reading them. The downside? My suitcase is going to be so heavy from all the books I’ve been buying, I’m not going to be able to lift it.

More to come.