RE: Seattle

http://subtextreadingseries.blogspot.com/

Subtext Reading Series
The Subtext reading series is a collaborative effort by Seattle-area writers and readers interested in new writing. July 2008 marks the fourteenth anniversary of the Subtext reading series. Each month Subtext pairs established and emerging experimental writers from around the country with a Pacific Northwest writer and puts them in front of a Seattle audience.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Jim McCrary & Paul Nelson (6/3/09)
...at 7:30pm.

RE: Portland

Looking forward to this. More info at:

www.flim.com/spareroom

More poets should do this...lots more!!!

From the yesterdays Lawrence Journal World 100 Years Ago Today Column:

1909

"More than 500 people watched as local poet Harry Kemp entered a lion cage at the carnival last night and read poetry to a group of lions. At one point, one of the animals let out a loud roar causing Kemp to jump abut six feet and look for the exit. Kemp said he always had wanted to find out about Daniel in the lions' den and felt fortunate to escape unharmed."

Always good for a poet reading to look for nearest exit!!

No doubt that still stands as the largest turnout ever for a poet in Lawrence.

I might suggest future conflicts between, oh flarf and quietitude could be settled by inviting some lions to judge a reading between individuals.

I suspect the winner would be the one who could read the longest without the lions noticing. I have certainly read for a long time in front of large groups of people who didnt appear to notice.

Eigner

"Amid increasingly palpable news rather than rumor of scarcities (to be hugely euphemistic abut it), abundant moments in various places persist and keep on in high or ultra high frequency, and a poem can be assay(s) of things come upon, can be a stretch of thinking."

Preface to The World and Its Streets, Places, 1977

So, in the previous post, my rambling and gather of thought in response to Jennifer Bartlett's comments. Over aware of what I know and when I knew it.

Certainly am not able or desire to "make a big deal" out of all this. And do not have energy
or education to interpret anything of Eigners.

What I know is how much I received from the work, how I was able to "read" it straight through and then again. How I 'got' 'it'...and that is simple pleasure in my head.

For me when I first found Eigner it was recognizable on a page. What I know now is that
is what I wanted all along...for me.

Someone called Kirby Olson over at Jennifers blog...gives Eigner a 'low score' because he
'got facts wrong' ....who knew? And boy does it not matter. But that is okay....no one who is responsible for 'correcting' a poets facts offers much critical worth for me especially for someone like me who doesnt necessarily 'respect' facts too much anyway.

I hope he continues reading Eigner.

About the CP...someone like Jennifer will look at this and react...I dont think I can.

Here is the last...the poetry of Larry Eigner is in books and pages in my house. I read it all the time. I dont even 'hear' it any more...I just read it. Maybe it is beyond 'reading'...I understand it, I ingest it, mind fuck....ay yi yi....I dont even 'think' about it, maybe it is beyond thinking, (see above) "..a stretch of thinking."

Thanks Larry, thanks Jennifer and others (Joe here in Lawrence) who are finding Eigner..enjoy.

RE: Knock me down

Jennifer Bartlett talking about her Larry Eigner recently here:

http://saintelizabethstreet.blogspot.com/2009/05/my-larry-eigner_9425.html

I can't stop thinking about this....how unattached (unaware) (narrow minded) I was, maybe, back in the day when I saw, listened, talked with etc. Larry in Berkeley and SF. Much irony (or just time past) that for 9 years now I have worked, almost daily, with persons with CP and I dont think I ever knew what Larrys problem was!!! He was in a wheelchair and was hard to understand vocally. Since then I read and reread the dozen Eigner books on shelf and postcards/letters from him when I was doing a 'zine in 90's. Almost on a weekly basis I pick them up and read. The influence is tremendous. I love it from him.

Then Jennifer talks about the CP..I am stunned at how much now I know or maybe don't know but comfortable to it...whew.....

Maybe, but not yet, thinking a change in the reading. I doubt it though. Just a thought.

I knew he was confined and therefore only 'saw' 'wrote' what he 'saw'. I am sure of that. But that I recognized. Not that I was confined physically but certainly, for me, a relief, to narrow the focus that mentally I had to deal with. I restricted myself to make it easier for me. No wonder if that influence came true or not.

Rereading this seems really jagged and thoughtless however I am gonna post anyway. These words not enough yet.

I am going to write more.

Thanks, Jennifer.

God Damn Good Poetry

Saturday, May 9th, 7:07 pm

Judy Roitman and Jim McCrary
Topeka, Kansas
Lulu's Cafe
10th and Gage

"Who knows where all this could lead too."