Well, it's time for my February new thing report. It wasn't a huge month where novelty is concerned, but I do one thing to report. I went to poetry reading--certainly not my first ever, but it was a new poet for me. Mark Doty. I must admit that I love him most for his memoir, Heaven's Coast, though he is a wonderful poet. My friend, Nell, recommended the memoir to me just after our friend, Lee, died, and it was a book that really affected me. Doty's partner had AIDS and died from complications associated with it, and the memoir is the story of his sickness and death and the way Doty handled both. It is a wise and terribly moving book. I recommend it to anyone who has been touched by grief.
The poetry reading was pretty good; the sound system was not, sadly. Afterwards, I thought about going up to Doty and thanking him for the book, but I get pretty shy around writers I like. I think because I'm so in awe of their words that I feel incapable of stringing my own words together to praise them. I've been in the presence of a few of my favorites in the past--Russell Banks, Tim O'Brien, Richard Russo, Tillie Olsen, Edward Albee--and I'm left tongue-tied. I had a conversation with Banks on an elevator, and I interviewed Albee for my college student newspaper, so I'm not totally mute around famous writers, but I couldn't get myself to talk to Doty. Still, he's one of my new things for February. If you're so inclined, here are a few Doty poems for your reading pleasure: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/doty/onlinepoems.htm
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