I had a great time reading and visiting w/folks in Oklahoma last week. I read at Oklahoma City University on Wednesday eve. (Day of the Dead - a propos for Things Come On) and at Univ. of Tulsa on Thursday. Here is an account of the latter reading by my co-reader, Sheila Black, who read some pretty swell poems of her own - some inspired by things said by her son, who suffers from schizophrenia.
The students at Tulsa were great, too - understood Things Come On better than I do, as I've told several folks since. Great close readers. My host, Grant Jenkins, gave me a wonderful tour of Tulsa, including Ron Padgett's childhood home, the (former) Greenwood neighborhood (where an entire community was massacred), the art-deco disneyland of the Boston St. Methodist Church, and the kitch paradise of Oral Roberts.
From Startles
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I was corresponding with a fellow poet recently about how difficult it is
to write now (right now); there are so many pressures from the outside,
that t...
1 week ago