Paul Austin, July 23

I never heard of Kauneoga Lake but here I was by surprise with fellow poet & traveler Sally Rhoades at the Fat Girl Cafe. Although Paul Austin, a Boston native, spent many years as an actor in New York City, I met him in Oklahoma, with his wife the novelist Rilla Askew, at the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. At this year’s Scissortail I heard him read from his new book Notes on Hard Times (Village Books Press, 2019), but when Sally said that he would be reading this night down in Sullivan County I eagerly agreed to go along. The 2 hour plus trip was worth it.

The reading was a benefit for a bartender at the cafe for his medical treatment & there was a good showing from the community, with the proceeds from the sale of Paul’s book going to the benefit. As an actor he gives a good reading of his work. He began with a group of political pieces including “Warsaw Ghetto 1942” & “God Damn the Preachers of Destruction.” He read mostly from Notes on Hard Times with a couple other pieces sprinkled in, poems on acting (“Freeze Frame on Artaud”), art (“Jackson Pollock After V-J Day”), poetry (“Delmore Schwartz, American Poet”), music (“Listening to Shubert,” “Monk”), & politics (“Resistance Blues”), but then none fit in such neat cubbyholes. & there was the love poem to Rilla “Hard Won Love.” The poet Joy Harjo had just been named the US Poet Laureate & he read “If They Ask” with its epigraph from her, written when we all knew she was a “poet laureate” but just hadn’t been named yet by the Library of Congress. It was quite a pleasant night of poetry.

The long drive was worth it for the ride through places in New York State I had never been to, & for the charming, lake-side community restaurant, with its deck over the water, the casual, friendly service & the excellent food. It was good to be with friends that we usually only see in Oklahoma — & the poetry was out-standing too.