Lincoln

Reading with Kazim Ali as part of The Clean Part Reading Series, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 12th and R St., Lincoln, NE.

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Trying to write about Lincoln while in a hotel room in Chicago… it’s always a little off, this blogging… and a little uncomfortable… not my natural métier (I always want everything I write to be crafted and carved and carefully thought out)—if this blog seems a little banal, Dear Reader, know it is only due to considerations of My Self: after having written and published a memoir and two poetry books (not to mention having posted a lot of marketing copy and various iterations of a bio), I am acutely aware of how text follows you around like a needy and misguided puppy; probably a third of my readings, for instance, have been introduced with some copy or a bio that I wrote (found on the web)… for better or worse…

But that is neither here nor there because I am neither in Lincoln nor in Ypsilanti, where I am going to talk to Christine Hume’s class on lyric memoir later on; rather I am in Chicago at the Inn at Chicago on Magnificent mile. I got in late… I have gotten in late for days now… First to Lawrence after Iowa, and then, more insanely, Lincoln after Lawrence (and then, even more insanely, Madison after Lincoln). We left Lawrence at noon and didn’t get into Lincoln until 6PM. Anthony Hawley, who edited poetry for Fence, is living there now and was our host. I think he wanted us to hang out a lot more—had been looking forward to some visitors—but the moment we arrived, we had to start preparing to leave. We were in Lincoln only ten hours before we had to drive to Madison.

Here is Anthony:



His lovely wife and child (she is a member of a quartet that is in residence at the University of Nebraska; Anthony teaches poetry there):



We went to the museum for the reading; Anthony says he usually gets about fifty people for the series, but our crowd was probably more like twenty; this may have been because there was a big football game that day, or maybe because it was freezing, who knows; it was a lot of fun anyway. Here are two skulls at the entrance to the museum; they had some sort of funereal/Halloween/Cinco de Mayo thing going on there:





Here is Anthony introducing:



Kazim reading:



Me reading:



A bored looking Richard Greenfield (who was a dear):



In order to get to Madison in time for our 2PM reading on Sunday, Kazim and I had to leave Lincoln at 4AM. Here is the road right around dawn:



And later:



C’est tout re Lincoln… now to get ready for Bikram in Chicago; I haven’t made it to a class since November 2nd in Missoula, and all the driving has made me stiff and tired. I haven’t washed what I call "my poetry Halloween costume" (black shirt, dress, leggings) since Missoula either; I am hoping to wash everything in Ann Arbor... we shall see.



What I really want to do more than anything else is get back into bed.