Austin

What can I add to the Austin posts? Maybe something, maybe nothing, but here goes anyway. I've been very sick since returning, the head cold that I developed just before leaving sacked me for a few days and I've been convalescing since. My headspace upon return has been very fickle, Austin stirred a bunch of things in my head.

First a deserved thank you for Farid Matuk and his unparalleled generosity. His cabin and welcoming presence was an Innisfree from all the welter of activity whilst in Austin. It was rejuvenating time and again to descend those flights of stairs back to the porch and jade colored water, to be accosted by the zealous slobbery Moon. A sweetheart of a dog. Scott Pierce mentioned that Moon left a wang contusion on his girlfriend's leg but with us Moon was the perfect gentleman.

Scott Pierce. What a dynamo! You can feel the kinetic energy coming off that guy just being around him. His volume of production, not to mention the quality, is astounding. His Effing Press has always been an inspiration and along with Ugly Duckling Presse, frankly the measure. It was refreshing to hear him talk about publishing and the Effing ethos of getting shit done the right way. I loved hearing him talk about paper and bandwith and just about everything else, but a highlight was talking writing with him late Saturday night. I look forward to reading more of Scott's poetry.

Meeting folks. Too many to mention, ok, I'll mention some: Tony Robinson, Laura, Joe Massey, Reb Livingston, Jonathan Mayhew, Hot Whiskey folks, Jordan, etc. etc. It was terrific to finally meet some of the folks face to face after having corresponded with many of them for so long.

The UGP was more party than readings, which was a little disappointing. That is no fault of the folks who organized this, it was just unfortunate to have it be about beer and schmoozing and not about hearing the poetry. My favorite reading was Tony Robinson, his new collaboration with Andrew Mister Here's To You is a gem, you should own it. Aaron Tieger read from February starting and ending with killer spot on quotes and the poems were really great. I wish people had given them the attention they deserved. Joe Massey's much ballyhooed reading. I look forward to reading with him at the Poetry Project in June.

Perhaps it is a bit of naivety on my part but I was shocked at how much of the poetry scene was about being seen, rather than listening to the work. Perhaps it is just the overwhelming nature of this sort of thing, that drives people to socialize rather than listen. Maybe they reach a saturation point and can't take in anymore. Who knows? I was also surprised at how important the self mythologizing is to some folks, that is almost presides in importance over the work. A friend pointed out that many poets are frustrated rock n rollers. Perhaps this is true, I've never been very interested in being a musician, so this could be where some of the divide is for me. Ultimately it comes back to the work and not the personality.

OK, I'm exhausted, perhaps I'll return to some of this thoughts and try to illuminate them...or not. & perhaps, I'll stop using perhaps in my next post.