Powow Poetry Reading: Krisak and Bottum

I went to the Powow poetry reading last night in Newburyport to see Len Krisak and J. Bottum read. I have known Len for ten years now, and second to Rhina, he has been the biggest influence on my metrical life. Len is an accomplished metricist as well as trivia master (actual Jeopardy champion) and these qualities make for fascinating poetry. From Horace to Hitchcock, Len with both grace and puns will knock your socks off. My only complaint tonight was that his reading was just too short.

I went to see Len but Jody Bottum was just as terrific. Len reads like he writes, with an emphatic but measured sophistication. Bottum was a complete surprise. Although a political conservative, Catholic thinker, and very formalist poet, his reading style is more like Dylan Thomas meets hip hop. There is such a musical presence in his voice as well as gentle soulful character.

I couldn’t find anything that Len read online, but did find this link to Able Muse which has several poems as well as audio link to Len reading. This is the first stanza from Day Trader and is classic Len, puns and all:

Possessed by nerveless frenzy at the screen,
       He jettisons the credit those
Who trust him lent him. Tapped out, there it goes,
With a soft click so mousy it’s obscene.

Read the rest for a typical Len de force in meter.

I did find two poems of Jody’s that he read tonight, ‘Timor Mortis’ and ‘Dirge’ (they are the second and third poems on the page so scroll down one,) both incredible performances, especially the former which utilizes Anglo-Saxon meter and, which when Bottum reads, fills you with a chill no rapper could replicate. As for the former, it begins:

I should have deadened the street with straw,
I should have stopped the bedroom clock
and stilled the doorbell chimes with crepe,
I should have brought him quinine bark,
exotic simples packed in teak,
I should have had Te Deums sung
with banks of candles, cloistered nuns
to say their beads before he died.

I hope you click above and read; it ends with equal power.

There was an open reading as well. A woman, a “complete stranger” as she introduced herself, asked me to choose two poems of several she had circled. It was her first time reading. And she did great. The last reader of the night, though, I thought, left a lot to be desired. As usual his voice quaked and the words that came out of my, um I mean his, mouth seemed disconnected from the page.

Lastly but not leastly, I met a poet who I’ve read and criticized on Eratosphere. It was a genuine thrill to meet someone that you’ve communicated with online, especially Gene. It’s interesting how I had created a face for him, so when he introduced himself to me, the name did not match the image in my mind, so there was no recognition, until he explained. I felt silly of course, but meeting Gene was, as the entire night, a pleasure.

As a coda, I purchased books from both Len and Jody. Len will probably never know the significance of his inscription "for Greg, poet and friend" because I'm only just beginning to discover it myself.