Shampoo

Last Thursday I went to the 5th anniversary reading for Shampoo. It was held at a gallery in San Francisco's Embarcadero Center. I like the idea of a poetry reading in an art gallery. The art is somehow less distracting than rows of titles on shelves. Or the bang of cash register, whoosh of espresso machine in a cafe. There was an Afro-Cuban band throwing up a din that made conversation impossible except outdoors. After the reading the band returned and got into a cool groove that could've kept up for hours, far as I was concerned.

I met Kyle Kaufman, Sara Larsen, and Melissa R. Brenhan, three young poets I discovered via Kyle's blog and invited to read Nov 4 for Poetry & Pizza. Kyle handed me an invite to send work to el pobre mouse, a magazine he & a few others assemble and (according to the invite) "spray-paint."

Inside the gallery door there was a table of scented shampoos for attendees to take home. At the table sniffing the bottles, I got to chatting with an East Coast transplant, Jasper, who just came West to go to UC Berkeley. In his own blog post about the reading Jasper says, "I didn't introduce myself to anyone." ...

The reading itself was OK. A long list of poets. Many of them with names that have long been familiar (& most I've seen/heard here & there) -- Kevin Killian, Leslie Scalapino, Bill Berkson, Kit Robinson, etc. Only one poet went on as though it were his own feature. If there's only one that's better than average. Most read 2 to 4 poems. (Actually I think Mr Stage Hog read only 3 poems. It's just that his third poem had 2 parts and went on for several pages.)