Tree Reading with George Murray

George Murray of 4 poetry collections and bookninja was in town last night at the Tree Reading. He remarked on how, with not a word of flattery, he assured, how wonderfully strong the open mic set was.

Some who opt in can get the text or audio recording of their poem posted at the site of the series before its replaced by newer readings. For another couple weeks you can hear a few last night’s open mic people (but at previous readings): Guy Simser, Baird McNeill, rob mclennan. On another page Murray Citron is reading translations of Itzik Manger’s Yiddish poems based on the book of Ruth. Host Rod Pederson, M.T. Al-Mansouri, Dean Steadman were among the regular crew who did the open mic lst night.

A nice fluidity goes with the habit here, reading ones own material, or something you want to share, such as Pierre Boivin sharing Irving Layton’s Misunderstanding. People do either or both. There were two new faces as well, smoothly articulating in their visions: Christine McNair and Gillian Wallace. Christine’s poem on the odd names the air force give to their planes flew well. Gillian Wallace read a series of poems, including one on a hysterectomy of what was never used, and yet not. All in all powerful stuff.

Lee Anne Boudreau opened with her first open mic appearance in 4 years. She held the audience with an excerpt from her 10 page story of a senior preparing to get ready for his brother’s funeral. He’s trying to sort out how his brother of better and wealth and health ended up going before he did. A theme evolved over the night with one of Guy Simser’s poems being about his losing his brother. They shared everything over life. From the same sports teams to past girlfriends. Death by drowning popped up (or rather sank) in Murray Citron’s poem and a couple others. Guy Simser also read a poem from his 5 years cultural immersion in Japan.

Murray read from the rush to here (2007), from The Hunter (2003) and from the new set of poems that are shaking into his next manuscript.

Each book is to clear the palate from the last. After Hunter he reversed course and was strict to form. the rush to here is sonnets that avoid rhyme (instead rhyming concepts) so his next will embrace it. He read Rearview Mirror, Rush and The Corner. From that last one:

I’ve met my match in my son, the mirror
image of his face constantly separating
from mine: I walk beside a wall of glass,
come to the corner, he goes the other way.

If he was going to field requests I would hope for Wilt with its “moment of relevation so intense/ it self-destructs, like a storm’s litter/might be swept clean by its own force” or Spilling Through the Break with it’s lovely surreal accuracy and humor of “The parents are getting younger, strollers/ pushed by strollers,” leading to,

Babies tread the air with fat legs, pinned
at the end of our arms against the night sky.
The gravid women have gone on strike, have clamped
their knees and grow like blasts in the vaccuum.

He also talked a bit about this odd generation trained by hearing the quick-parse of marketing slogans, movie trailers and whatnot, to make a sound bite. We can cough back the structure automatically. How do we relate to appropriation of someone else’s story? When in mass media like pop culture of 911, does it become our own story?

George Murray closed with poems inspired by James Richardson’s Vectors: Aphorisms & Ten-Second Essays. Ay, me, handwriting jots and dark room, bad combo. I can still read:
#27 “They put crosswords into the obituaries as a reminder.”

Other Booky Goodness: Red Pine’s Poems of the Masters: China’s Classic Anthology of T’ang and Sung Dynasty Verse arrived in the mail today. BookMooch is a good thing. 🙂

Poetry Rubric: A cleaner version of what I posted in Janauary: a chart to assist assessing or editing poems.

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