KNOW Readings Present Pierre Joris, July 13

I frequently have other things to do, other places to be on Saturdays when then this series is held each month, but I made sure I was at the Excelsior Pub in Albany this Saturday to hear Pierre Joris. The publicity says it starts at 1:30PM, but then I must believe in the Easter Bunny because all the St. Rocco series readings don’t start until at least a half-hour after the announced time. In fact, this day the host Douglas Rothschild didn’t set up the mic & amp until after 2:00PM, then rambled on about tennis scoring, TV as the origin of the “flashback,” & the flashbacks of Homer.  There were a dozen or so in the audience, waiting, drinking beer.  Then at about 2:30 Doug introduced Pierre.

But once it started it was a pleasant ramble as it often is at Pierre’s readings. He began reading the last poem he had typed up this morning, perhaps another cormorant poem, or notes leading to one, & on to new translations of Celan, then a series of Haiku, where Robert Kelly popped up for the first time in thoughts on Purgatory (later there was an older piece for Kelly from 1976 & another for his birthday). Pierre’s new poems are in those black, snap-spring binders that were once so de rigueur for any serious poet. He remarked that he has been translating the poems of Paul Celan (1920 - 1970) for 51 years, & is now working on a new translation, from which he gave us a sample of 5 poems.

We took a break. There is an excellent selection of craft beers to make the poetry go down. Then back to the reading.

The Excelsior Pub is just down the street, a very short walk, from where Pierre & Nicole Peyrafitte lived for years on Madison Place while he taught at UAlbany, so he read “52°, back porch” written there & included in his 1999 collection h.j.r. (OtherWind Press), then read the last poem in the collection, a love poem to Nicole. Back to the spring binder he read a long poetic memoir/meditation titled “Iceberg Meets Kingfisher” on his writing, & birds, & cormorants again. He tried a little magic from an issue of Barzakh to keep the hurricane away from NOLA, then ended with more cormorant poems in both English & translations into French by Nicole, as well as a painting of a cormorant by Nicole from The Book of U/Le Livre des cormorants (Editions Simoncini, Luxembourg, 2017).

This is an odd series that showcases the work of one writer in a reading that lasts one hour, which Pierre Joris was able to do holding our attention & interest to the end. But there are few writers I want (or am able) to hear read for a full hour, including myself. In fact I’ve heard many read for 20 minute features that have seemed like they read for an hour; I wonder if that counts? KNOW seems to occur on the 2nd Saturday, definitely at the Excelsior Pub, corner of Philip St. & Madison Ave., & the listings say “1:30PM” but don’t believe it.