INTRO + ITINERARY

I would like to thank you for coming out tonight to the Valley Contemporary Poets reading. Special thank you to Rick Lupert, Jeff Rochlin, and Rafa Alvarado and their tireless efforts invigorating the Los Angeles County poetry mundo.

But, I would like to congratulate you on choosing to interact with your fellow Angelenos at the Cobalt. Coming to a reading of poetry in the Age of Mass Distraction is a bold move. But, taking a chance on a writer is what makes a life of Literacy worth living.

Once you realize the buffet that abounds, in terms of interesting things to read, you find yourself reading the world with a my-eyes-are-always-bigger-than-my-stomach-approach. The history of print is so rich that anything printed has always held my interest. It is no coincidence I pay the rent as a librarian.

I have 20 minutes so let me not waste any more preaching to the choir. I hope you've never read my work, but I really admire the work of Nicanor Parra; he is the inventor of "Anti-Poetry" and a Latin American giant. And, I thought I knew the work of Mario Benedetti, but I did not at all and so I feel like I am re-discovering his work at a really opportune time in my writing life.

Nicanor Parra's "Test" page 67

Poem in Which My Hair is a Fanatical Quill
Harken! Endless Poxes
Cajon Pass
The Gazpacho is Enchanting & The Gazpacho Enchants Me

Nicanor Parra's "Mummies" page 49

Poem in Praise of Vending Machines Avec First Line Stolen From My Ex-Student, Hakeem
She's My Lobbyist
How the Phoenicians Invented Purple

Mario Benedetti's "Angelus" page 51

Derelict Specter
Insane Lake Michigan
Angelenos

Mario Benedetti's "Desaparecidos" page 205

Prologue to Detention
Longitudinal Duress
Cypher Adagio
Quasar Invocation