Notes from the Walla Walla Poetry Party 2003

On November 13, 14 and 15, 2003 southeastern Washington state played host to the latest incarnation of The Walla Walla Poetry Party. What is a Poetry Party? Nights of lively readings and days of lively conversation, informal, free-floating seminars, friendly arguments with former strangers, drives and meals with future friends, stroked egos, bruised egos, long pre-dawn walks and more, all at a pace human enough to make an urban poet almost remember what a sane pace of life used to be.

Earlier WWPP’s, spanning 1990 to 1997, featured readers ranging from the nationally known to local heroes to virtual hermits lured out of the woodwork by the invitation to read their work in public. 2003’s Poetry Party featured 13 invited poets who descended upon the reading hall via every conceivable mode of transport (including one absentee scribe who emailed a greeting from a Texas jail cell). Audience members converged from hither and yon as well—Idaho, Utah, Yakima, Seattle and down the block. Following are thumbnail sketches of the featured participants.

Stephen Thomas is a founding father of “spoken word” poetry in Seattle, having hosted the Cabaret Hegel in the 80s. Seattle poetry lovers are familiar with his book Journeyman (Tsunami, 1997 - compare prices to buy the book), but here we heard all new work.

Paul Nelson of Auburn, Washington is a radio impresario whose “Northwest Focus” is heard on 17 stations. He is also founder of the Superbowl of Poetry, held one week prior to the football game of the same name each year. A breath of beatnik poetry lives on in Paul’s work—he has caught some of his fire from Ginsberg and McClure and jazz.

Amalio Madueño (‘Hyper-Mex’), president of the Taos Poetry Circus during the 90s, was responsible for setting up the Circus as an independent non-profit organization. His poetry reflects the wiliness of a “coyote” who rose from native, farm-worker roots, and never stops extracting beauty from his life of engagement.

klipschutz hails from San Francisco and is a wise-cracking practitioner of seriously funny post-lyrical poetry. He also borrows the ecstatic fluidity of the ghazal form to lend his irony new wings. He read from his current volume, Twilight of the Male Ego (Tsunami, 2002 - compare prices to buy the book), and new poems as well.

Yours truly, Denis Mair (recently of the San Fernando Valley, the University of Pennsylvania, and Seattle), was also featured. I have been in residence at The Temple Bookstore since August and read from my book Man Cut in Wood. The Party gave me a chance to read my long poem “Longqing Gorge” to an attentive audience.