Anne Waldman gave a terrific performance last night. I especially enjoyed her reading of "Stereo" from Marriage, A Sentence. Her John Cage stuff was a little out there for my taste. But it was fascinating to hear all the singing. Sort of like when a priest sings the words at a mass, except she was more like a priestess or a witch, singing spells.

*

Joan Larkin gave a reading the night before, from her new and selected My Body. Also some new work, a novel written in sonnets, which was really very funny, not at all what I was expecting from high-fallutin sonnets. I stayed after to have her sign a book, and thank her again for taking a poem of mine for Bloom a while back. It was good to finally meet her in person.

*

I am getting a ton of drafting done on my "Expedition" poems. I was totally on a roll yesterday. I got something written for all 14 poems. Some more than others, but still. Very raw, very wild, but I see the whole series taking shape, and I like where it is going, what I am discovering, what the character are revealing to me. Maybe because I am so close to the sea here -- ships sailing, gulls crying, salt air and tides -- and there is that connection?

*

I think my first line breaks lecture/workshop went over well. Several people who missed it have asked for the handout. I hope today's goes as well. It is a different lecture/workshop, and perhaps a bit more "academic" than the first, looking at the "kinetics" and "emotion/affect" of line breaks/line endings. We'll see . . .

*

Met a fellow blogger at the Anne Waldman after-party: Saint Nobody from NY. What a hoot, Amy! We gossiped about all of you out there in the blogosphere. Especially RK.

*

PS: went to Jeannine's Haiku and Haibun workshop and had a gas. Wrote my first Haibun. Thanks Jeannine!