Author Archives: Don Yorty

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Home Again

… September 30 When I get off the L Train at First Avenue, I usually take the Avenue A exit which is closer to home, but I had to stop at the post office and CVS so I got off … Continue reading →

At the Hampton Inn in Boca Raton

30 Sep ’23

September 8 The elevator isn’t working; we have a first floor room with a view of the pool. I’ll get to practice my awful French with the Haitian staff, me and Google Translate. J’ai encore sommeil. J’ai besoin d’une serviette … Continue reading →

Susie Timmons reads at the Poetry Project

15 Sep ’23

In May of this year, Susie Timmons read with Maureen Owen at the Poetry Project. Maureen lives in Colorado, and is almost never in New York, and Susie is a poet one reads more than sees so the Project was … Continue reading →

Harry Kresky reads from A Poet’s Journey

11 Sep ’23

… I met Harry Kresky in the late eighties; he was my lawyer, or I should say he was the lawyer for the community. Without going into too much detail, or I’ll be writing a book, Harry defended a Lower … Continue reading →

228

19 Jul ’23

228 A homeless woman with her legs spread on a park bench looks ready to shit. Good God she is pulling her pants down with paper towels about to do it. Vacationing anarchists are camped out by the water fountain. … Continue reading →

92

19 Jul ’23

92… To be understood words are objective yet we understand them subjectively. When Willa Cather writes, “The long main street began at the church, the town seemed to flow from it like a stream from a spring,” the prose forms … Continue reading →

O Pretty Self

19 Jul ’23

O Pretty Self A snake curled in the sunfeels my shadow come and goesripples over stones. The stream falls downand oozes out of mossand mud where a deer’s stepped. No, I won’t pick this violet.Let it clutch the cracking rockblue … Continue reading →

36

19 Jul ’23

36 I see how strong a fragile thing can be. Look! A butterfly comes fluttering over its own reflection hovering out in the middle of a pond so deep and close you’d think no insect strength could last the … Continue reading →

Janis and Me

27 Jun ’23

… I got a fan letter from Janis Joplin once about a decade after her death. How is this possible? Her friend and lover, Linda Waldron, whom I knew through my friend Patti, was a psychic and sometimes, especially … Continue reading →

Eileen Myles reads from a “Working Life”

9 Jun ’23

April 17 at 7:30 PM at the Bell House in Brooklyn, Eileen Myles read from their new book of poems, a “Working Life.” The place was packed. Eileen read poems that were narrative, often amusing and sometimes surprising too in … Continue reading →

232

5 Jun ’23

… Fluttering robins louder than my singingare violent on the lawn where they’re fightingover a worm—No!—I’m wrong. As quietas a junkie gets sticking the needle in no matter what funny business preceded it—Like a junkie suddenlysilent one bird enters the … Continue reading →

Gary Indiana reads at the Poetry Project

27 May ’23

I went to see Gary Indiana read at the Poetry Project a few Wednesdays ago and brought my camera along to get this East Village icon archived on the blog. The Parrish Hall was packed with a crowd I’d say … Continue reading →