"It's a cute little country. Let's take it."

That was Albert Goldbarth's opening quip at his reading for Boulevard's 20th Anniversary Celebration yesterday. "Seriously, they have over-the-counter Tylenol with Codeine--that is kick-ass."

He read three poems, one of which was called "Rembrandt/Panties." His final poem he read in "the poet voice" just to eff with the audience, I think. The poet voice and the poetry moan are alive and well at AWP, alas. Molly Peacock reads in a more performative style than I expected, having never heard her--an animated stagey whisper-sing. ("Anybody who does one-woman shows gives me pause," jokes the husband, but really she is pretty charming.) Bob Hicok reads in a version of the poet voice. Didn't expect that, but we still love him and his poems manage to break through the distraction of that mutant cadence. Kevin Prufer's reading was very good (no poet voice, the poems all spookily bearing the grin of Thanatos). I noted that Molly Peacock spoke the phrase "finger bones" in one of her poems--that's the title of one of Pufer's books, so a little resonance bubble popped there. Floyd Skloot read an excerpt from an essay about his grandfather. Susan Steinberg read an excerpt from a short story called "The Garage;" I enjoyed her reading the most after AG's. The reading as a whole was unavoidably l o n g tho enjoyable--even when everyone is brilliant it is difficult to listen to 6 readers read for 20 minutes each, particularly after a day of chat at the bookfair.

At the bookfair yesterday I ran into the usual delightful suspects (too many to list exhaustively, but including Janet Holmes, Hannah Tinti, Matthew Zapruder, Dan Machlin, et. al.) and also met Charlie Jensen, Kasey Mohammad, and Paul Guest live and in person for the first time. (Hi guys!) Missed Josh Corey's panel (though I did get to chat with him briefly) and Aimee Nez's reading and about a dozen other things because they overlapped with table duty. At some point during the morning I looked up and saw Colum McCann standing in front of me and we both cracked up. Had no idea he'd be here. It's been ages since we've seen in other in New York, yet there he was with Joe of The Recorder so we went for a pint. Colum came up to read for the new low-residency MFA program at Wilkes University. And Miss Jewishy-Irishy Laurel kept me company, working the BOMB Magazine side of the table. Deborah Landau and Catherine Daly stopped by to say hi--Catherine's new book Locket glitters and reflects the image of the reader in the cover (you can't tell from the photo there, but it's shimmering gold metallic). I should have taken notes--I know I am forgetting people. Chris F. from Coffee House (whose table makes me swoon) and Peter Davis (whose book Poet's Bookshelf looks really interesting) also introduced themselves. And Rick Simonson from Elliot Bay Books stopped by to say hello and let us know he'd mentioned Soft Skull in his keynote address on indie publishing. (Woohoo!)

It rained all day yesterday; the lobbies were blurred with umbrellas. We spotted Billy Collins chomping on a cigar in the Hyatt Regency bar, perhaps miffed about the smoking ban/rain combination. Maxine Kumin was signing books, as was Lyrae Vanclief Stefanon, and whaddaya know there sat lovely Susan Wheeler signing copies of Ledger at the Iowa table. So I picked that up and had it inscribed. I handed out postcards for Down Spooky and Winnow Press, as well as invitations to our party last night, where we mingled with most of the list above plus newer faces American and Canadian and finally met the infamous Tony Robinson, easy to spot by his blog photo. Afterward, the husband & I went for dinner and walked through Gastown, missing the Verse party, oh well. But by that time I was feeling pretty partied out anyway. I don't know what I was thinking but I took no photos. I'll try to remedy that today, as well as hunt up more folks from my must-meet list. The skies are partially cloudy and we have a clear view of the mountains from our hotel room right now. Looks like we'll get to walk a bit and see the city today.

National Poetry Month begins today, as does Reen's NaPoWriMo challenge. I have accepted. Not sure if I will post my efforts here, but I will keep score somehow. I am usually s l o w and a daily poem run never lasts long. Why not play along?