nice to hear Stephanie Young read here, and the discussion in the comments field. whereas there's a comment left by Tony Tost at Gary Sullivan's blog (ici)that seems so pointlessly puffy. I'm not sure why his comments irritate me so. it's not that they're dumb (I mean, they are not dumb at all), and it's not really that he's self-plugging (he is self-plugging, but that's part of the process and OK). he makes poetry sound drippy. I hate when that happens. back to Stephanie, she maintains an articulate bead on the thing before her, not merely a provocation of energy. I saw Noah Eli Gordon read last summer and at first was impressed but the more I thought about it, the more his performance just seemed ghastly. a mechanical delivery system fraught with evolved weight. Stephanie reads gently, without device upon the words. like water moving. device is okay, as frinstance Kasey Mohammad (at PennSound) modulating. what he's doing is leaning with the words. Gordon's bullying them. I guess I've committed a dazed post here, wandering from side to side, which will perhaps excuse its surperficialities. depth is on the surface, writes Shaun McNiff in my defense.