DPRS report

I read some poems by Larry Levis on Sunday at the Dead Poets Reading Series. Catherine Owen, Lilja Valis, Chris Gilpin, and Evelyn Lau read as well. Here we are with the books of our dead poets:

L to R: Lilija Valis (Hanshan), Chris Gilpin (David Lerner), Catherine Owen
(Loren Eiseley), Rob Taylor (Larry Levis), Evelyn Lau (John Updike)

I hemmed and hawed for a long time over which poems of Levis' I would read, and finally settled on a set that was mostly autobiographical, and mostly from Winter Stars: "Unfinished Poem" (from Wrecking Crew), "The Poet at Seventeen", "Whitman", "Winter Stars" and "Though His Name Is Infinite, My Father Is Asleep" (all from Winter Stars).

I also read a few excerpts from essays and reviews on Levis' writing by David St. John and Tony Hoagland, Hoagland's being my favourite:

"Levis is not interested in metaphorical equivalence, in comparison as a device whose goal is logical coherence, or persuasion, or concentration; rather, his practice is to use image as a form of inquiry, as a kind of tentative, speculating finger poking into the unknown."

As for the other readers, stylistically this was possibly the most diverse of DPRS readings thus far, and probably the funniest. Catherine and I were a bit more serious, but Lilija, Chris and Evelyn all had us laughing pretty hard at one point or another - with a suprising number of dick jokes for a Mother's Day reading. Oh, and M. Anantanarayanan paid a visit as well.

You can see a few more photos from the event here. Thanks to Kristin Cheung of Ricepaper Magazine for being our volunteer cameraperson for the afternoon, and thanks to everyone who came out, readers and audience members alike, on a sunny Sunday afternoon!

I have one more reading to go this spring before I hibernate for the summer:

lunch poems @sfu
Wednesday, May 16th, Noon - 1 PM
Teck Gallery (main floor), SFU Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver
Featuring: Sandy Shreve and Rob Taylor
Free!
Facebook Event Page
Poster (PDF)

I hope to see you there!