The phone rang shortly after Kent left for the gym. I was in the midst of writing an email to a poet inviting him to read for Poetry & Pizza. When the phone rang I have to say I was expecting one of those random sales calls where you answer the phone with a cheery Hello! then find yourself waiting a full second while the computer calling system connects you to someone who likely hasn’t yet even heard your voice. If I don’t get a responding voice in a normal human interval I hang up. More than once I’ve heard their hello just as the receiver subsides to the cradle. Yes, this means nobody calls me.
The person on the line turned out to be Jayne McPherson, a poet I knew in Sonoma County, a member of the Russian River Writers’ Guild. She said she was hunting up people she hadn’t heard from in a long time. I guess she got my number from Richard Speakes, a poet & mentor from Santa Rosa Junior College. I’ve asked Richard to read for P&P; last time he sent me an appreciative note but begged off because he just hasn’t been able to get around much. Jayne says he’s now recuperating from back surgery. Ouch. Hope it was a kind cut.
Being as she hasn’t been around it lately, Jayne wondered if I had any recommendations concerning the Bay Area poetry scene. Places to go, poets to read, magazines to pick up? I didn’t have much to offer. Poetry & Pizza? Otherwise it’s the rare reading I’ve hauled my carcass to. Far’s poets & magazines go there are so many and what you like depends a lot on your tastes. I told her I’d been reading a lot of poets’ blogs.
Nice to hear Jayne’s voice. Now let’s see, what other SoCo poets do I wonder about now & then? Ann Erickson. Marianne Ware. Elizabeth Herron. Don Emblen. I should Google ‘em.
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