Date: Fri, 25 Oct 1996 11:06:34 EDT From: Henry Gould (AP201070@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU) Subject: there was a reading in Providence

Your intrepid lil Rhody motormouth attended excellent reading here yesterday, down at the Cable Car, the quaint cinema lounge with the spongy loveseats. Mark McMorris (say that 20 times with pebbles in yr motor) & Joshua Saul Beckman, 2 very fine poets, leaned on the tv set (fortunately turned off) & read for about 40 mins each. McMorris is a subtle & strong writer, the refined sound/vocab & swift flow of images made me think of Montale a little (the mention of :"Genoa" in _Moth Wings_ keyed me onto it - am I on the right track?). Joshua Beckman, remarkably original writer, something between prose/poetry/ performance art/storytelling, wonderful surrealism with a lot of thought, heart, Whitman-kindness-compassion. Very funny too. His paragraphs on the joy of being an adult especially etc. Beckman publishes "Object Lesson" a serial of unique conceptions. Providence is brimming with poesis up to its ear-canals (the revamp of downtown makes it look like St. Petersburg or Venice too).

p.s. check the poetics archives at http://wonderblob.fashion.digest to get the details on what they were wearing. - Henry Gould