Saturday, October 26, 2019
The reading last night at Golden West went about as well as I could have hoped for. I had a chance to read a couple of fairly long poems, including the premiere reading of “The Upbringing of J. Alfred P.,” in which I got to “channel” the voice of Prufrock’s mother. The audience gathered for a group photograph afterwards, and I am grateful to each person’s attentive appreciation of my new work. After 40 minutes, I still had not read any poems from The Headwaters of Nirvana, copies of which — despite its neglect — found their way home in different hands than brought them to the reading.
I want to thank Alex Umlas and Mifanwy Kaiser in particular for giving me a chance to read at length. We talked about the chance that I might lead at Tebot Bach poetry workshop in January or early February, 2020. I read two poems that used the words “make up” in them, and was fortunate enough to have Shannon Phillips in the audience as they auditioned for a place in her upcoming project.
About Bill Mohr