Page 26 - Litteratteur Redefining World December issue

Moment of Truth December 2020
Litterateur redefining world

Turning point

welcome to the house of failure
Jack and Adelle Foley at Cody’s
Books, Berkeley, CA. 1988. Photo see these are the structural bases of the
by Rick Mahan. house its beams and arteries
its artificial light its hands its vast
appendices
who is
not here?
the range of things
delights us welcome welcome

see there is the door it opens for us

welcome

As it happened, the Native American writer
Gerald Vizenor, whom I knew through a course
sponsored by Ishmael Reed's Before
Columbus Foundation, was also about to do a
poetry reading. Gerry's reading was to be at
The California College of Arts and Crafts in
Oakland. I told him about my upcoming
reading with Ivan and he suggested that I read
with him as well. The organizer of Gerry's
reading phoned me asking whether I would like
to be on for a half hour. I told her fifteen
minutes would be fine. She told me that there
would be "other, less well-known people on the
bill." I didn't tell her that it would be pretty hard

to find someone "less well-known" than I was!
I suggested that Ivan be included in the
reading. My idea was that Ivan could hear me
and if he didn't like what he heard, he could
skip the Larry Blake's reading, no hard
feelings.

The Marquis Who's Who

26