more Massacre, arriving mid Kimball. Jack is a careful, thoughtful reader. I've heard him read cold, other people's stuff, he's good. funny and glancing. I think of Jack as warmer Ashbery. I first read Ashbery in college, and the sense of distance (Tennis Court Oath) disconcerted me then, tho I was easily put off by strange and new then. he read at Franconia, and I met him, dinner at Grenier's, and he was quite friendly, but his reading, in an awkward room and not many people, was shy and inward. anyway, Jack's the bomb. now, I didn't see no Brian Kim Stefans, who I had hoped to hear, so maybe he missed the event. curst be the day. Matvei Yankelevich wrote seques for his poems. my brain is too muddled right now to describe properly but he'd read a poem and place it in the past, so the present seemed past. acknowledging all the tics and cliches of readings. I'll try to write of this better, for it was clever and it worked. I'm looking at the schedule and it was adjusted. so the blur now aint resolving. Aaron Kiely is very funny but his serious poems are an effort, self conscious. his Breaks My Heart poem is a weak incantation. or I should say, such incantatory effect won't work if written on the shirtsleeve. I have my doubts about John Taggart's use thereof, too. anyway, I'm watching glib carefully. Noah Eli Gordon read strong, especially a long piece (a chapbook) by Chris Rizzo. I'm sorry but I cannot be sure whose name belonged to what reading memory here. might've been Chris Jackson who read with english, that is, lots of hand, shoulder, head movements as accents. made me think of Joe Cocker. which distracted me at first, then I got swept in. I think it was Matthew Celona who started with a poem in another langauge or just made up syllables, sounded dada, thus different, that was cool. his play was lengthy and could've taken a trim but largely hilarious, Bush 41 and Bush 43 talking nonsense. now I remember that someone named Meghan, nott on the schedule, read. aha. anyway, the room was full, stuff happened. is poetry a gulf to fall into or leap over?