I ended up in City Lights Bookstore tonight to support the HermitQueen in one of her public appearances. The poetry reading was to celebrate the publication of Van Gogh's Ear (VGE) a journal of "contemporary, experimental, daring poetry of unusual forms, language, genius, and provocation." The readers were Mary Burger, Albert Flynn DeSilver, kari Edwards, Paul Hoover, and Eileen Tabios.

Mary Burger uses experimental narrative. The story accepted in VGE discussed relationships in terms of particle physics. I need to obtain the other copy just to see her writing. I only bought the Spring 2003 issue. For her reading, Ms. Burger used writing which discussed the development of atomic bombs from the perspective of people who saw the explosions and might have worked on the facilities that supported the nuclear program. Her use of language was Spartan. "The man? The boy? The woman?" were words that I remember.

Next up on the podium was Albert Flynn DeSilver the publisher for The Owl Press. I liked his poetry in that it was a very hang loose type. Definitely hints of Buddhism in his writing in terms of subjects and approach. I just read his poetry in VGE and I think it is a lot above my understanding. Because of that, we will reserve judgement.

kari edwards is a gender activist. Her first poem dealt with the moment between daydreaming and the moment of being pulled back into reality. She was able to capture the slowing of time in her poetry. She then read from Chapter 14 of A Day in the Life of P. This was a much more difficult reading because of the pace, the rhythm, and the breath that needed to be sucked in so that the words can be let out. Definitely an acquired taste for me.

Paul Hoover is a great reader. Excellent pacing, inflection, and commentary. His poetry discusses pieces of experience falling together. His voice is the classic voice of poetry. The voice was deep, sonorous, rhythmic, and full of life. He was also full of humor and wit. This is how I imagined Robert Frost should sound. He noted that the phrase "infinity's brief intercalation" is the definition of poetry.

The last poet was Eileen Tabios. From my previous posts, you would know that I now can connect with Eileen on one level. I'm not sure just how many levels she has, but I'm quite happy to be able to say that I can relate to her though it is only at one level. I always wondered how to describe Eileen's voice when reading poetry. Finally, I came to the word: femininity. The poem "Helen" published in VGE came from her series "Crucial Bliss," which will be published in book form soon. She read the following poems: Pink Lemonade, Dear Antique Mirror, Besmirched, and Yen. Her poem Yen is at her website. You should check it out because my favorite line goes something like: "your nipples circumference remind me of the sun and moon over Istanbul."

My interest in poetry is an attempt to learn a new discipline so that my photography can be expanded in thought and background. I feel that images are good, but creation of images and having meaning in images is a greater challenge. In order to create meaning in photographs, I must understand the poetry of light. Thus, my interest in poetry. Words are like light. Used by different people, light and words will mean different things