dan raphael praised Potts before beginning his performance. “Charles deserves lots of respect and credit for everything he’s done for poetry over the years.”
raphael performed several winter and spring poems. “Tumbling Microcosm” was the most fascinating poem he recited -- “diffuse but clear lights / devastating nuance / fingers tapping directly into the spine / but that’s not how the land talks / when a flying city falls.”
Hugh Fox had a heavy Michigan accent and amused the crowd with anecdotes about his Brazilian wife and poems recited in Portuguese. “What I really am is a 100-year-old hippie,” he said.
The most memorable of Sharon Doubiago’s work came during “January 1, 2000 3 AM” as she said, “I wake inside my mother / flesh infused of her / edgy raw, red rose cellular wall of my mother.” Doubiago went well past the 20-minute limit as she asked Potts to allow her to recite a prose piece. Donning a prop, a T-shirt with the words “Walla Walla Poetry Party,” she recited the piece to encouragement from the crowd. They didn’t mind that she went over the limit; one audience member said “it’s okay, I can sleep tomorrow!”
Andy Clausen concluded the evening with energetic and articulate recitals. Potts called Clausen’s “the best poetry performance I’ve ever heard.” He was definitely one of the best of the evening, as he delivered his own poems and poems by other authors with energy and eloquence. He made a Bo Baba poem, which he translated into English, come to life with a thrilling performance. Clausen’s vibrant voice made him the most accessible and understandable poet of Saturday evening. It was clear that he had lots of experience performing poetry.
His last piece, “The Latter Days of the Beat Generation,” told the story of Klausen’s friend, Gregory Corso. Klausen had the crowd in stitches when he imitated Gregory’s voice, and said, “You can’t jump in the same river once.”
Potts ended the evening with a final praise of the poets and stressed the party afterwards, asking the audience to “Talk to the poets. Talk to everybody. Cuz if we don’t make sense, who’s going to?”
The Walla Walla Poetry Party was founded in 1990 by Charles Potts and David Hiatt. The event is not annual or even semi-annual, but held whenever Potts has the time and energy to organize it. The mission of the party, according to the Temple Bookstore Web site, “is to provide the opportunity for poets and writers to present original avant-garde works in an informal and congenial atmosphere, become better acquainted with the works of other poets, and to provide visitors to Walla Walla and the general public with a showcase of literary arts.”
The Party has been well-attended by the community in years past, and Charles Potts is an institution in Walla Walla. The fondness for him was evident in every poet’s voice, in every catcall from the crowd. As father of the Party and the owner of the Temple Bookstore, Potts’ contributions are clearly a labor of love, by him and by the entire Temple Bookstore staff. ~Amber Andersen [blockquote]Reprinted with permission from the April 21, 2005 edition of The Whitman College Pioneer[/blockquote]
