I'm Bonnie Jean Michalski.
I'm editor associate at the Poetry Center,
and I'm going to be introducing Dan Waber today.
First I want to encourage everyone to move closer,
if you're in the back.
All of the workshops wil have a slightly more intimate crowd
than the readings and we should all get to know one another.
Dan Waber explores, makes and loves so many things
so deeply that the best I can do is to sample
from as many projects and many loves.
Dan Waber is co-editor along with his wife Jennifer
Hill of Paper Kite Press.
Ongoing Paper Kite Press projects include--
This Is Visual Poetry, a series of full color
chapbooks answering the question what is visual poetry.
And recent Paper Kite Press publications
include Poem, Home, an anthology of Ars Poetica.
And last year they opened Paper Kite Books
in Pennsylvania, which offers unusual books
for unusual people.
Dan is also a visual poet.
A sampling of his visual poetry includes
Beasties, Monsters Made Up, Monsters Made Up for Made Up
Monster Names' Names.
I cannot do this project justice,
you'll have to visit logolalia.com/beasties to see
how unique it is.
And it's a good way to see how playful Dan's particular brand
of intelligence can be.
Make sure also to check out his String poems
featured on vispo.com in which language argues with itself,
words seduce each other, and letters create
a wonderfully tangly logic.
Dan is also a sound poet and a scholar and lover
of sound poetry.
The first time I encountered Dan he gave a reading for Chax
Press at Club Congress here in Tucson
and he recited at the [? Pinnacle ?] Poem,
with the kind of nuance and artistic force that
can be achieved only by intimate knowledge
of and deep love for your subject matter.
He blew me away and I've enjoyed following his work since.
Dan says language is broken, some schools of poetry
sit on the floor and cry about it.
Others look at the pieces and say,
what can we make out of this?
Maybe the page is broken, maybe it's not.
No matter what the crisis or call to action
is that brought us all to this symposium,
I'm thrilled about the opportunity
to learn from Dan what can be made out this.
Please help me welcome Dan Waber.
[APPLAUSE]