A Mediated Reading 🖥️ ...tomorrow!
Lovelies,
It will not surprise those of you who know me well that I will take the analog over the digital any day: real lectures over online, real letters over email, plays over movies. I even still listen to physical media, getting records from the store and hauling them out of their sleeves when I want to hear music. It’s old fashioned, just the way I like it.
But in this time of quarantines, when so much of our lives is mediated through screens, I’ve seen so many others lending shoulder to wheel to create connection where isolation has been the rule, that I thought my own preferences should not keep me from doing my small bit.
Also, I miss you all. I miss seeing you.
So on Thursday (4/2) I’m going to read some poems via Facebook to anyone who happens to be logged on. You can find the reading at this link at noon Seattle time. I’ll stay on till 1pm or so, reading poems and chatting with whoever turns up. You can type comments, ask questions, or make requests. If there’s a line in one of my poems that you don’t understand, you can ask about it: I’ve never wanted to be one of those obstuse poets aiming for mystery by being imprecise.
Stop by if you can. It would be lovely to see your faces again.
In other news, Christianity Today has just published a set of stories about significant mentors in peoples lives and it opens with my recollections about Jeffrey Davis, my first composition instructor, now Dean at Wheaton College. That man’s sense of calling saved my life: you can read about how here.
Most everything’s else, like most everything else, has ground to a halt for me as I have taken over my daughter’s schooling and as I transition my classes to online format. Looks like I sent this tweet just a week too soon.
Reading
But I am reading this book by Justin Whitmel Earley called The Common Rule.
I can’t go on record as recommending the prose—this is a very particular genre— but the ideas, while simple, have gone further toward actually changing my life, the lived experience of it, than anything I can recall. It’s very practical, the tweaks tiny but massively significant. Read it with friends.
That’s it. I wanted to keep this short. Mostly, just wanted to say hang in there and that I hope to see you Thursday.
Online Poetry Reading | Thursday April 2, 12:00pm PST | Facebook event page