Hullabaloo

Like many poets at the start of their writing lives I was so caught up in received ideas of beauty. I couldn't imagine that the tobacco fields and power plant and boys driving by in their trucks and throwing their sodas and God knows what else at me could be worked into something beautiful. And so for a very long time I wrote well-meaning and profoundly flat poems.

--Gabrielle Calvocoressi over at Poetry Society of America's Q & A on American Poetry

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Read at the Hugo House open mic reading yesterday. Could hardly believe how many people were there (lots). It's within walking distance of my apartment. It's great to discover such an encouraging and necessary place so close to where I live. Score one for Seattle.

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The immortality motivation seems to me a place to entertain delusion. Neglect in the present is often a sign of something other than genius too lofty for its era; but one can embrace the thought, and go through life being six to eight weeks ahead of one's time.

A wonderful interview between Henry Taylor and Peter Makuck. Worth the read, if you've got time.

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Another new poem goes up today. 2 for 2!

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I wished I cared about anything as much as these guys care about Spanish futbol.