I was delighted when Karen Falkenstrom asked me to read.
She called me on the phone.
And she said, keep November 30 free.
And I thought maybe she would be taking me to a movie.
[LAUGHTER]
And I'm so happy that she and I are here
with you tonight and not with Mickey and Mallory.
[LAUGHTER]
Karen has been a very devoted reader of my work and promoter
of my career.
And as editor of Kore Press, she has accepted a book-length poem
of mine called Shoreline Series, which will be coming out
next year as a chapbook.
And I have a couple of short pieces here from that series--
three and four.
To give a lizard or a cow the entire length of the beach
is the best way to achieve control.
In the Digable Planets series, we are all babies like that.
She left me because I started treating her differently.
She left me because she started treating herself differently.
She left me because myself at my altar.
She left me because herself at her volcano.
She left me because I fell out of my tree.
She left me because she fell out of her tree.
Oh my knight, my love on her horse,
oh my overfilled cart and my blood on her shirt.
When we finally become ourselves,
we become a swinging door, that gray book
told me, that sandbank told me.
When the boss is sleeping, everyone
is sleeping, that gray book told me, that hurry bird told me.
Thus, we have some idea of time--
a little past noon--
and some idea of place--
Playa la Misión-- a little bit of heaven told me,
an absolute independence told me.
When we become tired of our lives we say,
I shouldn't have come to this place.
It would have been better to go someplace nicer
for lunch, Tecate, Rosarito, oceanfront, Mexican investments,
understanding the law, and enjoying high yields.
Extended in high surf, we create an idea of place.
That violet cloud is always that violet cloud,
separate from actual time, the yellow mountain
always the yellow mountain.