Date: Fri, 1 Nov 1996 12:59:41 From: Jordan Davis (jdavis@PANIX.COM) Subject: Carll 23, Szamatowicz 22

Steve Carll 23, Carol Szamatowicz 22 at Poetry City, 10/31 7:25 p.m.
TIME: C (30 mins), S (30 mins).
ATTENDANCE: 25

San Francisco poet Steve Carll read 23 poems and Carol Szamatowicz read 22 poems at Poetry City on Halloween. Steve, in a red t-shirt, beige slacks and white Converse sneakers, read poems from his books _Sincerity Loops_ and _trace a moment's closure for clues_, and from an unpublished manuscript entitled _Drugs_. As has been noted on this listserv before, Steve sweetly manipulates the lyrics of songs that he likes, elaborating clear new syntaxes from 'When the rain comes...' or 'And the train conductor said, take a break Driver 8'. Among the poems in the new book are some startlingly successful erasures of Robert Bly, poems written to movies, and poems whose formal restrictions were assigned by editors. Solicit and submit, indeed! Steve (citing Jeff Conant as the influence) burst into discursive prose for his last segment, _Drugs_. These brief essays on perception and effect contained such lines as: "Alcohol can turn any morning into a wake", "Fame never went to crack's head like some other drugs we could mention", "LSD, better known as the fifth Beatle", "Hi! Marijuana's not a drug but it plays one on tv." Steve closed with a poem called "New Jack York". Good reading.

Ordinarily we have an intermission, but it was Halloween and people were antsy, so I rushed right into Carol Szamatowicz's reading. Co-host Anna Malmude came up to the mike to give a second introduction to Carol -- "I'd like to introduce one of my many moms." Carol elaborated: 'My daughter is Anna's sister.' Then Carol read twenty-two pieces from her manuscript of prose-poems. Carol writes Faginescas, a form named after Larry Fagin and also practiced by Michael Friedman and Gillian McCain. Where Michael's are Fred Astaire and Gillian's are Susan Sontag, Carol's Faginescas are Anthony Trollope. Carol pays a lot of attention to the salient details of social interaction, which facts I observe in the modest and informative sentences she prefers. Anyway. Carol wore a black silk top and slacks. Here are some things she said: "These cheeses are history", "There's only five channels and beer. I accept that.", "There is a couple who loved eachother since childhood and that is all that is left of them", "I think you are the one who spilled", "Besides the suspicion of sleep there is the treachery of wood", "I was a brisk little tooth drifting to earth", "My genius uses itself up in the austere nudity of self-reliance", "Boredom that makes us long for the freedom of combat", "Lick something everyday, I say", "A hell where we feed ourselves with three-foot chopsticks." Well I take back that part about Trollope.

In the audience were: Rick Hill, Bill Luoma, Katy Lederer, Anselm Berrigan, Karl Parker, Larry Fagin, Douglas Rothschild, Drew Gardner and David Golumbia.

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Steve's titles were:

The Time of Yellow Grass
The Sun Nets an Orpheus
Poem Founded Upon Contemplation of Tenderness
Melia
Driving to Minnesota During Hanoi
Noe Valley
It's Rain
Southern Sky
Don't Don't
I Equals You, We Is the Generator
Hey, Your Highness's Complaint
Won't Is In Don't
Toned Corpreces (?)
?????
Sunday at the AMC
DRUGS
Alcohol
Caffeine
Crack
Heroin
LSD
Marijuana
Methamphetamine
New Jack York

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Carol's titles were:

Floods
Trees
Body Murk
Cats and Birds
A Drag to Our Neighbors
Back Brain
Faceless Doll
Flash By
Furthermore
Hallowed Aid
Long Summer Draw
Losing Ground
Method
Murder She Wrote
Perfect Fool
Private Lesson
Quantum Corridor
Startrekian
Sticky Picket
Zoop
Jamie
What Will Rime Put

I hope some of you can make it to next Thursday's reading, which, God willing, will be John Wieners and Eleni Sikelianos. Come to Poetry City, where we give you food and wine, and we do as little as possible to pre-contextualize the readings for you.

Jordan Davis