Ale√s Debeljak Reading and Chad Sweeney and Parthenon West

The reading last night was good. There was a class there who had obviously been forced by their professor to come, but they were mostly Japanese exchange students, so it was a nice addition to the reading I thought. It forced everyone to behave just a little differently. It added something to have a couple dozen Japanese kids taking notes while the poets read, something.

The poetry was good and everything, but I wanted to say something else about the reading...

Chad Sweeney, whose poetry I have only read in Bird Dog, is one positive, supportive fellow. Too often do you meet someone or give someone a book only to find that they've forgotten who you are and never even thought about reading your book.
Usually, positive and supportive comes off lame and cheesy, but Mr. Sweeney seems able to navigate the poetry world just fine without any air of cheesiness or lameness at all. And it seems quite genuine. Such a trait is truly admirable, methinks.

To confess, I have never read an entire issue of Parthenon West. I will now.

Anyway, I had a great time at the reading last night. I enjoy the freshness of being in an audience with first-timers and someone like Lyn Hejinian. I mean that it's nice to see veterans with newbies sharing an experience. Not to be sentimental about it or anything. . . it's not like it was touching or anything. .

It was touching.