Angel

In the Lupton Library at UTC where Meacham started last night. I read at noon along with a few others (Rebecca Cook, Pam Aakhus -- I've screwed up her last name; I'll fix it later) but most notably for me personally was Laurel Snyder. I was very proud to be in the same line-up with her, we who started out in the same workshops together some thirteen or fourteen years ago. Her poems, from her chapbook Daphne & Jim, were just awesome. So I'm rather abuzz about all that.

I read four poems, all new work. I've gotten to feel like as long as I'm reading here, locally, with others, I'll take the hit, read short, make space for others. I'm sure most people are sick to death of me as is. So that's cool.

Currently, everybody took off to one of the professor's houses for wine, dinner before tonight's reading. I never go to these off-campus things: logistically, it's just a pain -- how to get me there? What about this two-hundred pound wheelchair? Is the house even accessible? Usually not. So I just skip. I should go, but it's too much trouble.

Very good to meet Mr. Adam Thomas, who drove down from Nashville for the noon reading. My friends Betsy and Sherry are here from Memphis; I'm introducing them as my weekend girlfriends. I'm probably more amused by this idea than they are.

Very overcast today after yesterday's stunning gorgeousness.