Work is a little slow right now, so I thought I’d update the ‘ol journal. I read yesterday at a formal reading of poetry and fiction writers at Temple University. Assembled in the audience were undergrads, graduate students and Temple University faculty. In honor of such a distinguished audience, I read some of my most graphic stuff – amontg them, poems about flowers overthrowing humanity and a love story about a couple who literally eat other to death. I was proud of the content, but because I wasn’t drinking beforehand, my reading was faster and a more clipped than usual. Still, I did the reading. Chip Delany liked my material too. He gave me some pointers on how to read sober and offered suggestions as to how to arrange poems so that they give the most "punch" when read in the right order. It must be a "crescendo" he said.

It was such a great feeling to directly confront the forces that control you; the forces that make you feel like less of a human. I believe our gashes and wounds are physical manifestations of the desire to be reunited with the Other. I make gashes in Others and in myself so that they may be filled.

Some of my fellow-Clarionites are in Florida attending the ICFA. I wish I could be with them, getting drunk, passing out, meeting people, but instead I am here in cold Philadelphia. CNN.com predicts that the high will be 36 F. Too damned cold for the third day of spring. Regardelss of my total discomfort, I wish all the best to the crew that went. Catch a tan and wear shorts for me! Get some books signed and spread the good word about Clarion 2001! Excuse me while I put some coal on the fire and add another layer of thermal underwear to my skin.

Tonight, there is a fiction reading at the Temple Gallery. An author named Amy Hemphill will be the featured reader. There is some controversy as to which graduate student will read. The department printed flyers with the name of the student reader, but no one in the department ever actually asked the student if she wanted to read. If it were I, there would have been no problem. I’d’ve gone and read. I consider myself ready for the challenge of giving a public reading at a moment’s notice. But the woman who was never asked has refused to read, which to me is unconscionable. As graduate students, we are nowhere near the level of professional who should decline speaking engagements. There are so few opportunities to reach out to an audience that young writers should seize every opportunity to present their work.

I’ve started reading Heidegger’s "An Introduction to Metaphysics." It is more convoluted than Foucault’s "Civilization and Madness" but a good read nonetheless. I’ll post more about it when I have deeper understanding of the texts.


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