Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Invited by Charlie Bondhus to the Publishing Triangle Awards Ceremony, I decided to troop along. The evening was held in the auditorium of The New School, where I heard Marie Ponsot read some years ago. The big space was less than half-filled. I thought it a pity, since the event was free and open to the public. Don Weise, with whom I chatted during the reception, suggested that New Yorkers don't value what they can get for nothing. Steven Cordova and Walter Holland, who are in the same writing group as Charlie, came in support too. Sara Farizan made a dramatic entrance just as her win for the Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction was announced. She had been delayed at San Francisco airport for three hours. She received even greater applause when her novel If You Could be Mine won the Ferro-Grumley Award for Lesbian and Gay Fiction. It was the first time in the awards history that one book won in the two categories. I was very happy for Charlie when his book of poems All the Heat W...

Read last night with Charlie Bondhus, Steven Cordova and Walter Holland at the Bureau of General Services--Queer Division . Greg, who works full-time at the Bureau, was lovely to talk to. Al and Paul Rozario-Falcone came, as did Eric Norris. I read "Profiles" and a couple of the ghazals from Seven Studies , "Eve's Fault" from the forthcoming book, and "The old Chinese poets" from The Pillow Book . Eric thought it was the best reading that I had done. I thought so too. I could hear myself relaxed into the music of the lines. mute swan a child's drawing on blue paper