Greetings from Series A

Okay, so tonight I saw Betsy Wheeler and Joshua Marie Wilkinson read down at the Hyde Park Art Center and these are the results:

I LOVE Betsy's new book "Start Here." Imagine your best friend calling you at 3:00 in the morning to tell you how crazy he is about this new girl. That is what reading this book is like. The poem is at once beautiful, desperate, cute, innocent and yet from a voice that you know knows better. It simultaneously makes you long to love like that again and yet, be so glad you don't have to love like that again. The poem did great things for me and I want it to do great things for you as well.

What do I always say at this point? Why don't you go to: http://smallanchorpress.com/about.html and drop a few coins on this book. The poem is great and book itself is gorgeous; letter pressed AND silk screened.

I also realized something about reading, in general, while listening (and watching) JMW. That man loves his poems. You can see it in his eyes and his hands. You can hear it in his voice. Even after years, he still loves his poems! I should be so lucky...

I can't believe I'd never pieced this together before, but watching JMW read is like watching a musician when he realizes he is tearing shit up. Like watching Jordan. Like watching your feet be totally in sync with whatever is playing on your iPod. He finds that groove that goes hand in hand with doing something you feel lucky to be doing. His eyes shift and project mood. His hands twitch when something good is coming up. His voice sounds both tired and excited all at once.

What can I say...at least I figured out WHAT to work on. Now the question is how?