In the process of organizing the audio archives of SPLAB, (thank you 4Culture) and those that pre-date the December 13, 1993 founding of the non-profit organization, I came across the audio of Anne Waldman and Andrew Schelling talking about American Sentences in a 2001 interview. I had read the poems created in that form by Allen Ginsberg in 1994, when I interviewed the legendary poet, but the form gained new significance when I saw the sentences through the eyes of Anne and Andrew.
Eight years later Andrew was there shedding light on the haibun form in an email exchange.
Now thanks in part to Jason Wirth and his Seattle University Eco-Sangha, Andrew Schelling is coming to Cascadia and will participate in several events, some of which are connected to his brilliant new biography of Jaime de Angulo:
Jaime de Angulo’s linguistic and ethnographic work, his writings, as well as the legends that cloak the Old Coyote himself, vividly reflect the particulars of the Pacific coast. His poetry and prose uniquely represented the bohemian sensibility of the twenties, thirties and forties, and he was known for his reworkings of coyote tales and shamanic mysticism. So vivid was his writing that Ezra Pound called him “the American Ovid,” and William Carlos Williams claimed that de Angulo was “one of the most outstanding writers I have ever encountered.”
The schedule is subject to change, but as of this writing includes:
Thursday, Feb 22, Northwind Gallery, Port Townsend, interview and reading, 7pm.
Friday, February 23, 6:30pm, i.e. Gallery in Edison. Andrew Schelling reads with Kevin Craft and Georgia Johnson.
Saturday, February 24, 7pm, private event, Seattle.
Sunday, February 25, 3-5pm, Interview/reading at Elliott Bay Books.
Monday, February 26, Seattle U Student Center Room 130, 7:30pm, Seattle U Eco-Sangha, Andrew Schelling will read some of his poems as well as discuss the relationship between poetry and Buddhist practice.
Since meeting Andrew in 1997, I have written over 6,000 American Sentences and at least 99 haibun, so you can imagine the joy I will have at presenting this man, his fine intellect, his poetry knowledge and his new work on a talent deserving wider recognition, Jaime de Angulo. Please consider attending one (or more) of these events.
A July 2011 interview conducted by your humble narrator is found here.