Spent a bit of the afternoon on a bench in the sun, reading aloud Ammons' A Tape for the Turn of the Year with Johnny. Looking forward to hearing Kevin Varrone & Pattie McCarthy tonight at the Poetry Project. It makes me happy to have so many favorite poets.
Especially when they share my birthday, as Ammons does (not sure about Kevin or Pattie). What if I only read books by people who share my birthday? That would include Nikos Kazantzakis, Joel Oppenheimer, Wallace Stegner, Toni Morrison, Sholom Aleichem (whose granddaughter Bel Kaufman wrote Up the Down Staircase), Audre Lorde, Andre Breton & even Helen Gurley Brown.
Update: The reading was one of the best ever. Kevin was riveting, reading a new work called The Complete Letters (a love poem to, through & about the alphabet); Pattie was mesmerizingly fierce, reading new & newer poems. Completely satisfying & also inspiring.
Especially when they share my birthday, as Ammons does (not sure about Kevin or Pattie). What if I only read books by people who share my birthday? That would include Nikos Kazantzakis, Joel Oppenheimer, Wallace Stegner, Toni Morrison, Sholom Aleichem (whose granddaughter Bel Kaufman wrote Up the Down Staircase), Audre Lorde, Andre Breton & even Helen Gurley Brown.
Update: The reading was one of the best ever. Kevin was riveting, reading a new work called The Complete Letters (a love poem to, through & about the alphabet); Pattie was mesmerizingly fierce, reading new & newer poems. Completely satisfying & also inspiring.