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Cleve-Land
Back from reading at Cleveland State University on Thursday. It was hard to follow Kate Greenstreet–she has the most ingratiatingly nearsighted stage presence. You really feel as though she is speaking to you–Because she is! In various deft registers of notation and declamation and preoccupation. She’s on this massive, amazing, awe-inspiring reading tour. Please go see her if she’s coming to a venue near you and I bet she is.
Posted in Uncategorized on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 by Rebecca Wolff.
Comments (8)
That’s massive all right. I wonder if she’s writing new poems as she drives from place to place. Because who could stand to hear themselves read the same poem fifty nights in a row?! I’d totally start heckling myself around day five.
I heard Greenstreet read one time, and although I thought her poems were very interesting I didn’t think she was very good as a reader. She read too shyly and quietly and it was heard to hear her. I have a copy of her book Case Sensitive though and I really like it. Looking forward to getting her new book soon.
Wow, that is impressive.
Well I guess to each his own, vis a vis reading styles, but I wonder if she’s evolved quite a bit as a reader since you heard her, as I would not say that she comes across as shy or quiet now. Rather introverted in the most extro manner I’ve ever seen.
Cleveland, forever haunted by the poetic genius and martyrdom of d.a. levy (1942-1968):
i thought they were
wind chimes
in the streets at night
with my young eyes
i looked to the east
and the distant ringing
of ghost ponies
rose from the ground
Ponies Ponies Ponies
(the young horse becomes
a funny sounding
word)
i looked to the east
seeking buddhas to
justify those bells
weeping in the darkness
The Underground Horses
are rising
Cherokee, Delaware, Huron
we will return your land to you
the young horses
will return your land to you
to purify the land
with their tears
The Underground Horses
are rising
to tell their fathers
“in the streets at night
the bells of Cherokee ponies
are weeping.”
Richard Howard was a Cleveland guy, right? And Franz Wright has got a book on Cleveland Poets Series. Is he Cleveland?
Bill Knott comments on the “impressive” number of readings she gives:
http://knottprosepo.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-is-impressive-httpwww.html
I toured with her when she was promoting her last book; she continually writes & evolves. And she doesn’t do the same reading every night.