Once I survived the promotional photo shoot for the Underbelly reading, I was ready for the event. I’ll be part of a reading in Pioneer Square with:
underbelly every last Wednesday 119 1st Ave
sept 28 alysa levi-d’ancona diamond coal
paul e nelson eric m acosta michael crossley
nicole mccarthy nanya jhingran
zoe sandalwood lila bonow
eric m acosta was at my recent Margin Shift reading and invited me to read, happy to do so.
As a poet who uses the act of writing the poem to better clarify what I think, having (I think) successfully taken on the Day Song/Temporal Epic, there is nothing more compelling to read than that work. What themes explored during my recent postcard fest experience had more juice? What to say about the death of my Subud brother Evan Padilla? About the underachieving White Sox? I course I would need 3.5 slots to read the whole poem, as it is just over 34 pages, but accomplishing the deed was quite satisfying and I learned a few things, which is always part of the task when writing with a desire/ethos of discovery.
I created the Day Song prompt for the folks taking my online workshops and it is based on works by Bernadette Mayer and Pierre Joris. My interview with Pierre about his Canto Diurno #1 can be viewed here:
The notion behind the prompt was for people who participate in the Poetry Postcard Fest. After 56 days of contraction (poems the size of a postcard) it would be an exercise in flexibility for one’s range in poetry composition, to let ‘er rip and use all that good spontaneous composition juju built up after 31 poems. (For me it was 40.)
That we’re bringing Pierre Joris to Seattle in October is icing on the cake. Email me if you’d like the early details on that, or come to underbelly Wednesday, Sept 28 at 8pm and buy me a belated birthday drink.