Last night

...at Kili was fun. Thanks to everybody for coming out, to Tracey for having me, and to Chris for putting on a great show! Everybody always wants to know who was there poetwise, so I will tell you: [expurgated], Sharon Mesmer, Boni Joi, Amy Holman, David Cameron, Aaron Kiely, Brendan Lorber, Miss McTague herself, and probably some others I am accidentally omitting, plus a small crew of my beloved regulars.



I chose to read poems from the middle section of the book, those not from either of the chaps, from which I've been reading a lot lately. In retrospect, this might not have been such a hot idea. I didn't want to bore the regulars who have heard "Elegy for a Fictional Strongman" and etc. no less than 20 times, but it was actually mostly not a regular crowd, so I could have mixed it up a bit more and been a tad smoother and less nervous, I think, if I'd read poems that were better practiced. But that's neither here nor there, really, except being nervous I twanged worse than usual and aw shucksed a little. Apparently I went a wee bit apoplectic on the preznit, whom I loathe more each day, when I mentioned that despite drooling on himself all through the debates, people voted for him anyway, and he's taken this to means he no longer needs to bother to zip his fly. Yeah, I don't remember that.



Am I making this sound like it was not fun? But, it was fun. Chris did a mixed set of rap and regl'ar poems, dedicated to his childhood friend who was in attendance. I remember in particular being so struck by his syncopated rhymes like one with fetid and bed. It... and several other amazingly cadenced phrases though I think I am unused to listening to such recitations and need more exposure because I am so caught up by the sound I often lose the sense due to sheer sonic delight. And Kili is a beautiful place to read with a receptive and attentive bar crowd and everybody is so nice and the fire is wonderful and the food smells delicious and the couches are so soft and I traded Chris for a copy of his chapbook The Day Reagan Died and Erica made it and it is fantastic.