and now indeed it is autumn the clear / days not far from the sea
What was I doing last Tuesday night, you ask? Oh, not much, just hanging out at a house party with Billy Collins at Thomas Lux's place. Billy (we're on a first name basis now) (that is a lie) was in town to do a reading at Georgia Tech, and it turns out if you're the creepy kid who's been hanging out at poetry department events long enough, you can end up wrangling an invitation to the afterparty.
It was pretty rad! Billy Collins squeezed by me in the kitchen to get a drink! I... did not actually talk to him, but I'm pretty sure, it's Step 1: This. Step 2: Become Sparkling, Integral Part of the Literati's Inside Circle.
Thomas Lux has a tall, poetry-filled house with walls and walls of books, and posters -- readings, workshops, Poetry in Motion cards -- and a roof deck full of drunk poets. I stood in corners and talked about Elizabeth Strout and Dean Young.
As for the reading, tbqh, I'm at a point where I enjoy Señor Collins' inter-poem banter better than the poems themselves, and luckily he did not disappoint:
"If you're stuck in a poem, just have a dog come in. It will get you out of your self-absorption and cheer things up."
"The past tense of oh my god is I was like oh my god."
He also talked about how there should be a name for poems whose whole meaning comes from their titles, including this punch-in-the-gut by Merwin:
Elegy
Who would I show it to
**** (Unf, unf. Oh Merwin, I think I love you most of all.)
Other things: I saw that Facebook movie, and in the first five minutes, it showed the bar RIGHT BY my old Somerville apartment, and LiveJournal itself. Also, rowing. Thanks for making a movie about my life, guys! (Too bad about the women.)
I'm trying to remember I can update my lj without having to make a giant State of the Nation post every time, because how tedious for both of us.
Lately, all the time, I'm feeling like my whole life is going by so incredibly quickly, like I've already forgotten almost everything that's happened to me, and before I know it I'll have forgotten the rest, and I don't have a second to catch my breath. Why aren't I writing more of the good stuff down? Or the everyday stuff? It's all happening.
It was pretty rad! Billy Collins squeezed by me in the kitchen to get a drink! I... did not actually talk to him, but I'm pretty sure, it's Step 1: This. Step 2: Become Sparkling, Integral Part of the Literati's Inside Circle.
Thomas Lux has a tall, poetry-filled house with walls and walls of books, and posters -- readings, workshops, Poetry in Motion cards -- and a roof deck full of drunk poets. I stood in corners and talked about Elizabeth Strout and Dean Young.
As for the reading, tbqh, I'm at a point where I enjoy Señor Collins' inter-poem banter better than the poems themselves, and luckily he did not disappoint:
"If you're stuck in a poem, just have a dog come in. It will get you out of your self-absorption and cheer things up."
"The past tense of oh my god is I was like oh my god."
He also talked about how there should be a name for poems whose whole meaning comes from their titles, including this punch-in-the-gut by Merwin:
Elegy
Who would I show it to
**** (Unf, unf. Oh Merwin, I think I love you most of all.)
Other things: I saw that Facebook movie, and in the first five minutes, it showed the bar RIGHT BY my old Somerville apartment, and LiveJournal itself. Also, rowing. Thanks for making a movie about my life, guys! (Too bad about the women.)
I'm trying to remember I can update my lj without having to make a giant State of the Nation post every time, because how tedious for both of us.
Lately, all the time, I'm feeling like my whole life is going by so incredibly quickly, like I've already forgotten almost everything that's happened to me, and before I know it I'll have forgotten the rest, and I don't have a second to catch my breath. Why aren't I writing more of the good stuff down? Or the everyday stuff? It's all happening.