Saturday, June 29, 2019
The reading at Kauai Community College went exceptionally well, and all of the work that Nicole Street put into publicizing the event made an enormous difference. The school is fairly quiet during the summer, in much the same manner as CSU Long Beach, and I was delighted that a couple dozen people from the surrounding community attended the reading.
Of the poems listed in my potential set list, the ones that got dropped were Waiting in Line at Pancho’s Tacos, The Bulldozer, An Answer, and the Haiku Sequence in KYSO.
I especially want to thank Helen Yamaguchi for making a lei that was presented to me after the reading. Helen is recognized as one of the island’s most accomplished and revered lei makers. When I wore the lei at Lihue Airport yesterday, a number of workers with Delta airlines commented on the lei. The person who took the boarding passes at the entrance to the plane’s boarding ramp asked me, “Are you special?” Flight attendants said they had never seen anything quite like it. Indeed, it was one of the most selfless gestures I have ever received as a poet, and I want to thank her for the honor of this lei.
I did receive news about an upcoming reprinting of one of the poems while I was in Hawaii, and I will share that news soon. In the meantime, I want to thank both Nicole and her spouse Erik for being the most fabulous hosts that one could ever wish for. I don’t think it’s an accident that being at their house enabled me to feel centered enough to write nearly a dozen new poems.
Sunday, June 9, 2019
(Thank you, Nicole Street, for setting this up!)
Potential “set list”:
Portrait in McVicker’s Garden
Rules for Building a Labyrinth
How to Play Ping-Pong with a Mirror
The Restoration
In the Ocean of Nothingness
One Miracle
Waiting in Line at Pancho’s Tacos
The Bulldozer
An Answer
The Haiku Sequence in KYSO
Complexities
Real Days Off
The Remission
Wrinkles
Why the Heart Never Develops Cancer
About Bill Mohr