© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… ……Charles Baudelaire wrote Une Charogne to his lover, Jeanne Duval, an actress and dancer, who met him when she left Haiti for France in 1842. Whether she died sooner or lived longer than the poet is in dispute, though … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… I got on a Chinatown bus last March and went to Philly to see Marty Watt read some poems at PhilaMOCA, a great performance space in what used to be Kensington, if I remember correctly, a little northeast of … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… I had wanted to hear Hilary Sideris read with Jeff Wright a few weeks back, but I missed that, so the next best thing was to have her come over to my place. Both of us worked for CUNY, … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… On Sunday, May 7, I went uptown to Hudson Gardens to hear a reading by poets who had contributed to Transition: Poems in the Aftermath, poets’ reactions, writings and thoughts about the November 2016 election, from November 9th to … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… A few Sundays ago I went uptown to Hudson Gardens, a beautiful part of Manhattan, a very intimate spot. There was a reading by poets who had contributed to Transition: Poems in the Aftermath, poets’ reactions to the November … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… A few Sundays ago I went to Zinc Bar. I had never heard the three poets who were reading before—John Mulrooney, Laurie Price, and Sean Cole—and I wanted to hear something new. I enjoyed them all; they were worth … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Last Thursday I went over to Phyllis Wat and Dennis Moritz’s home on Grand Street just a few blocks east of the great (inexpensive) Chinese restaurants and markets before you get to the Bowery. I’d seen Phyllis read at … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… I asked Kaveh Akbar if I could video him while he read at the Poetry Project and he said yes. All I had was my iPhone, but I put it to use, shooting him vertically, not horizontally because I … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… I’d rather watch fireflies than fireworks pressing against the dark. “They’re vicious beasts,” Dad says: “All they do is have sex and eat their prey by the light they make. There’s the first one now!” I look watching it … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
Yesterday I went to work on my sonnets and they looked horrible; changes I had made the day before that I thought then would complete everything were not as good as they’d looked; in fact, they were awful, and had … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… It’s April. Everything is young and beautiful. But you’re not here. It might as well be winter. You’ve cast your shadow over everything. … From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dress’d in all … Continue reading
© 2017 Don Yorty. All rights reserved.
… Last autumn I heard Arlo Quint read at the Poetry Project. Afterward, I saw Drawn In, a chapbook of his, on the table where the authors put their books to sell. Drawn In drew me. I loved the drawing … Continue reading