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First You Invite an Author …
Dave and I could hardly wait. We’d come up with the idea to host a poetry reading, as we continued to collect poetry, mysteries, and “Vermontiana” — books by Vermont authors or about life in our state. Already we’d named our specialty bookstore: KINGDOM BOOKS. (Like Howard Frank Mosher’s creation of Kingdom County in his novels, of course.)
We both thought hosting a Beat Poet would be great: to hear her read her poetry, maybe even a new poem not yet published; to ask her to sign copies of her printed books for us, raising their appeal to future owners; and to provide some recognition to a poet not well known in our rural area, but significant in her writing career.
And I would be the one to make the invitation!
Some 15 years earlier, when I lived at the glassworks in West Barnet with my kids and the glassblower, G, a call came for me — which usually meant one of my relatives. Instead, the woman on the phone said, “This is Barbara Moraff in Danville. I wanted to tell you that your poem in the Trading Post was quite good.”
Well, I’d spent two summer sessions at the Bread Loaf Writers Conference. But that upscale, university-linked program provided introductions to the writing and teaching of mainstream poets — not to Beat Poets and their wild peers, like Allen Ginsburg and Gary Snyder and Diane Wakoski. And I’d never…
