Commentary
The News From
Out West
I went to a poetry
reading (well, to be honest, I pretty much only go to poetry
readings) on Sunday at Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA. It was a
good reading with a crowd of 30-40 people. I say good because my
poetry was accepted by the audience, even though it is on the
raw side. The other readers (3) represented what I think of as a
more genteel / academic stance when it comes to the craft. You
might even call it charming. You'd never say that about what I
write. And, of course, there were the open mic readers who were,
surprisingly, fairly good, except for the one guy who was
working on a comedy (?) routine that wasn't very funny, even for
a poetry confab. The other features were Julie Bemis (worth
checking out), Peggy Dobrer, and Alex Frankel (also worth
checking out). Hostess with the mostess, Marie Lecrivain was
very generous in her support (some hosts use their position to
belittle other poets—but
not Marie) of the readers in general. AND I sold three books
(always a plus). Thanks to Bren, Nancy and Pippi...
BTW the reaction to my newest collection, Fire and Rain
vol. 1, has been overwhelmingly positive! So, if you
haven't ordered your copy yet, I suggest that you do. You can
get a signed copy if you order it thru the Lummox website, or
you can buy it from Lulu.com (the printer). Either way, I think
it's a must have for those of you who claim to be friends of the
old Raindog.
One final note, I was in the bookstore at BB and I saw a book by
Lawrence Ferlinghetti. I was struck by how similar it looked to
my Little Red Book series! I've heard that imitation is the
sincerest form of flattery, so I guess I'm flattered that the
famous poet and publisher appears to be imitating the LRB
series. See the attached file for comparison.
Well that's it for now, except to remind you that Fire and
Rain is still available, and it will soon be followed by
the Road Poem trilogy, On/Off the beaten Path
(later this month).
Fire and
Rain can be purchased from
www.lummoxpress.com
for $23 (ppd) or from
Lulu.com for $19 plus shipping.
This book is not
available in stores.
Raindog
