A Weekend of Poetry

On Friday night I went to hear Kim Addonizio, Mark Jarman and Andrew Hudgins read at the opening of the 2009-09 season of Poetry at Tech. I have to admit Mark's work from his latest collection, Epistles, didn't do anything for me. My mind kept wandering off and I was easily distracted by people's comings, goings and shifting about. On the other hand, Kim had me on the edge of my seat as she read mostly from her forthcoming collection Lucifer at the Starlight and finished up by playing some sassy blues harmonic. Brilliant work. I wanted her to keep reading. Hudgins read from a forthcoming collection hilariously titled, Shut Up, You're Fine, which he described as poems for "very bad children." That book is on my must-read list.

On Saturday, I somehow managed to get my shit together to send out submissions to three journals. I hadn't submitted anything in about six months or more, so it was time to get back on the horse. My dry spell was also broken last week after I scribbled down what I thought were 12 unrelated lines that, somehow, coalesced into a poem I actually liked. I've got lines for another poem cooking in my brain, too.  And while I was in a poetry mood, I also revised two other poems that I like, but needed further drafts. All in all, a very productive Saturday. I celebrated by watching Across the Universe, Julie Taymor's beautiful film using songs by The Beatles. It was visually stunning, but a little too long and trying to weave together a coherent plot using the songs was a stretch that didn't quite work. 

This evening I read from at After the Poison at Java Monkey Speaks in Decatur. A great audience of friends and fellow poets -- Karen G. (my cheerleader), Theresa Davis, Yolo, Alan Sugar, ICON, Deborah Bailey, Christine Swint (the editor of ouroboros review), Karen Head, Jan, Copperhead Red (the great spoken word poet who waited to go back home to Knoxville to hear me...thank ya, love), Fernando, Tim and everyone else who came. Many, many thanks. And, of course, host Kodac Harrison, who first gave me a platform to read my work when I came back to poetry in 2003.