Friday, December 7, 2012
Books A Seriously Magical Reading in Boerum Hill
Posted by Sarah Lerner on Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 11:35 AM
Page 6 of 6
“I’m so glad I don’t have to be a woman in the world without Eileen Myles,” began Monica D’avila McClure, and I can guarantee no audience member left without sharing the same sentiment, whatever their gender may have been. Myles is of course a strong, brilliant poet in her own right, but it was the stories she shared that truly heightened the evening, beginning with a bit of snark directed toward The New Yorker, who rejected her Atlas Review-contribution “Wet Paris” with a passive aggressive note: “In the future, will you please send your poems to my assistant?” McClure offered to text New Yorker Poetry Editor Paul Muldoon, to which a crowd-member replied, “Why don’t you give us all his number?” It was an audience clearly on Myles’s side. She also prefaced the excellent poem “Painting of a Penis” with an anecdote about how, when asked what Myles was like as a child, her mother replied, “She always talked about wanting a penis.” As a poet-punk icon, there is more where that came from: “I’m usually against explaining poems, but there are so many good stories—this is like stand-up for a poet."
Top Commenters
