Tom Savage reads from 135 Poems, collaborations with Bill Kushner

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The poet Bill Kushner always carried a notebook to write in when the spirit moved him, which was often and anywhere. Bill was a real collaborator too. Collaborating helped the writing process along. For the last two years of his life, Bill and Tom Savage would meet at SAGE, a senior citizen center for the LGBT community in Chelsea, where there was a poetry share on Tuesdays. After the afternoon readings, before dinner, Bill and Tom often collaborated. The immediacy of these collaborations, the repartee creating fresh lines makes reading and listening to them a lot of fun:

Needless to say, but I am saying it
The world got the better of me and I capitulated

But the elm trees wouldn’t let me get away
They caught me with their sexy limbs and said, “Stay, little sparrow, stay.”

I’ve looked hopeless in the face and dared it to wince.
I’d offer you a bite of my apple but it’s almost gone
Said Eve to Adam with a shake of her buns.
What fun to rewrite Eden anyway we’d like.

I went to SAGE last week, and in the library there, Tom read from 135 Poems, a beautiful book, a work of love by Ken “Angel” Davis. These poems would not be here in printed form if not for Kenny who did the cover art and financed the printing of what he likes to call a “retro-mimeo,” an excellent name for this kind of book.

Tom Savage reads from these poetic explorations, mostly sonnets, light and airy, playful, sophisticated, even tacky, and sometimes cock in cheek, awfully obscene and scatological, not for the wincing weak of heart or the unhappy prude, but a delight, these creations of chance and possibility, for the rest us.

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