Author Archives: Don Yorty

O Pretty Self

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 →

Reading for LiVE MAG! #19 at the Jefferson Market Library, May 7, 2023

21 May ’23

… Jeff Wright and Lori Ortiz have curated another LiVE MAG!, one of the consistently best art literary magazines around. I love LiVE MAG! You can catch its flavor in the Vimeo below. Enjoy. Check out LiVE MAG! … Continue reading →

James Barickman reads from Helluva Season

21 May ’23

James Barickman is a sound technician at the Poetry Project where he is responsible for capturing the words of poets as they speak them every week in the Parrish Hall or the Sanctuary, a daunting task that I have watched … Continue reading →

Charles Coe reads from Purgatory Road

7 May ’23

If you happen to be in New England, keep your eyes and ears open for Charles Coe reading from his new book of poems, Purgatory Road. With an assuring sonorous voice that makes you want to listen, there is both … Continue reading →

Karen Friedland reads from Incurable/Inoperable: Poems and Notes from a Deadly Diagnosis

30 Apr ’23

… Yes, we are all going to die. But some of us are going to die sooner than others. And when that happens to you, what are you going to do about it? Yesterday, I read an essay in the … Continue reading →

Donna Fleischer reads for the Edge Reading Series

29 Apr ’23

I got to know Donna Fleischer through her online website, word pond, where she shares the work of other poets, artists, and musicians, both dead and alive, one big happy family. Because word pond has been a vital supporter of … Continue reading →

Marc Chagall: Six Paintings

21 Apr ’23

… I became aware of Marc Chagall when I was a teenager in the 1960’s. Many of the artists I discovered then were still alive like Dali, Picasso, Georgia O’Keeffe, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall too, whose brides, goats, and … Continue reading →