Irene McKinney, WDTV and 101 Great Erotic Poems

Good turnout for the Irene McInney reading at B&N. The West Virginia Poet Laureate was marvelous, as always...and the turnout was respectable for a Saturday morning. A guy from a local TV station (WDTV, Channel 5) came and video taped part of her presentation, I was certain to stay behind him. I don't like being in crowd scenes. I begrudgingly accept shots of me as a headliner...when I don't have to be the star, I don't appear. Interviews are bruising. Taped readings are like innoculations with dirty, rusty needles.

Tag was there, showing off his new book to the CRM (Chanda Willard, whom I also gently chided for not getting TV coverage of my visit last week or David Selby, earlier this week), and to James Harms, the gentleman responsible for the Creative Writing program at WVU. They seemed appropriately impressed (Hey, I designed the cover).

Before the read I had the opportunity to talk with the esteemed Ms. McInney about poetry, mortality, the Mountain State and the rather fluttery relationship between the literary arts and the mass media. She offered some real insights completely in keeping with my worldview. She asked me if I had been at David and Elkins College (from whose website I stole the picture of the poet)a few weeks ago, for a reading, as she had heard that I had been. I told her that not one college, university, high school, trade school or kindergarten in the Mountain State had approached me for a reading this year and the invites I did get were just not logistically practical (California, with gas prices as high as they are, will have to wait for my visit for my daughter's wedding in September). She was rather, it seemed, disappointed (she, I and Maggie Anderson are the three living poets listed in the AEI's tribute "Art&Soul"). I shrugged.

Chanda asked me about the status of 101 GREAT EROTIC POEMS and when it would be out (she seems anxious to have a reading when it hits...I told her I want a royalty on condom sales...) and also approached me about my headlining a poetry night for next year's Valentine's Day. I promised that if I was in the area still, no problem...otherwise, I'd still make sure I was there for it.

I also gave Ms. McKinney a signed copy of THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES, as she had been asking me about that volume before she took the stage...she had seen it and wanted more information on the novel length poetry collection.

As I write this I am waiting for the final incubation processing on tonight's podcast. I find when I am smitten (no names and certainly no totem, yet), the best thing for me is to multitask until my brainpan collapses. I will post word when the show is up. If I don't...I have either died or been kidnapped by some wanton. 'Bout damn time.