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More Bruce Taylor

MikePerry — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 13:53:32 +0000

When I am deep into writing a book, I return to certain reliable sources, poetry among them. And so deep in the muddy vortex of stubborn prose I was relieved when something crisp and new from my long-time friend and mentor Bruce Taylor (I wrote of him in Truck) popped up yesterday. You can read it here. Also do be sure to click the audio link and note that despite all the cheese in Wisconsin Bruce has never quite shed his east coast mother tongue…

Here is a previous Bruce post.

And it was Bruce who introduced me to the work of Lucille Clifton.

New Poetry from C. Dale Young

MikePerry — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 12:25:45 +0000

Poet C. Dale Young has a new collection out. Torn contains this poem, which I first heard when it was delivered by Young at an evening reading in Vermont. I have never forgotten the emotion C. Dale invested in the giving of it.

Bruce Reading Poems

MikePerry — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 08:27:11 +0000

Friend, mentor, and I-wouldn’t-be-doing-what-I’m-doing-today-if-not-for-him guy Bruce Taylor (featured in Truck) had his poem featured on The Writer’s Almanac Sunday. Poem’s called “His Good Felt Hat” and it’s right here.

Here is Bruce reading the brief, lovely, “In Class Exercise”:

And here is “Our Body.”

A Poet and Pork

MikePerry — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 08:21:46 +0000

A friend forwarded this video of the poet Kevin Young reading four selections. Last Saturday we had a whole crew of kin over to the place for a meal that included a big ol’ tank of pork in various forms, and Mr. Young is right on the money regarding the joys of that meat (“Ode to Pork”, commencing at roughly 4:35 in the video, but I’d watch the whole thing, this is good stuff) (and catch that “B/babe” joke in there). Kevin Young will be appearing here, by the way. Based on our schedules, we’ll likely cross each other in the airport. The “Ode to Boudin” is a gorgeous thing, a poem for his departed father, the universal intersection of grief and food and joy and memory: …his sisters/my aunts dancing/in the yard to a car radio...

Lucille Clifton

MikePerry — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:52:28 +0000

A woman who greatly influenced my writing is gone. We were not acquaintances. I seem to recall seeing her speak once, but I might have been remembering a video I watched in a Bruce Taylor poetry workshop long ago. Her work is on my bookshelf, and – if she would allow me to say so – between the lines of my own pages.

Some of her work is here. Hear the power of her reading here. [Sometimes that audio link doesn't work. Here's the text of the poem she's reading.]