Carrboro Poetry Festival, Day Two

I arrived Sunday in time for a session of readings that started at 2:50 pm. Readers for this session were shirlette ammons, Carl Martin, Lou Lipsitz, Ken Rumble, Andrea Selch, and Ravi Shankar.

shirlette ammons read from her book Stumphole: Aunthology of Bakwoods Blood.
Lou Lipsitz read poems including his "Elegy for Corso and So Much Else," about a reading Corso did at Yale in 1959.
Poems Ken Rumble read include "Gossip," "Call Them Crushes," and a poem about a dream concerning Guantanamo Bay.

After a break, the next reading session began. Readers for this session were Chris Murray, Jaki Shelton Green, Joseph Donahue, Murat Nemet-Nejat, and Standard Schaefer. Joseph Donahue read from his book Incidental Eclipse. He read his poems "Occult Blood," "A Parish in the North," and "Where Every Hallow Holds a Hollow."
Murat Nemet-Nejat read translations from his Eda: An Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry. He also read his poem "Steps."
Standard Schaefer read from his long poem Water and Power.

The poets had dinner in the "Poet Hospitality" area.

At 7:20 PM, the last session of the festival began. Readers in this session were Linh Dinh, Patrick Herron, Lee Ann Brown, K. Silem Mohammad, and Brian Henry.

Linh Dinh read prose poems from his book Blood and Soap. He read prose poems concerning marriage; one about a horoscope; and a series of prose poems in the form of starred movie reviews.

Lee Ann Brown read poems including "Poet's Complaint," "Sustain Pedal," and a found poem based on her mother's letters (which she said always begin with the words "How glad").
She also sang a "modern Cruel Mother ballad" about Susan Smith.

K. Silem Mohammad read poems from Deer Head Nation. He explained the process of searching Google and "interfering with the results" to write poems, "a variation on found poetry or sampling." He also read some poems not from Deer Head Nation, including "Exorcist Voice" and "Land of Oh Boy."

Brian Henry read his poems "Insomnia," "Look Around," "That's How I Spend," "Discrete Mathematics," "Audition," "Tank," and "Dark in Order to Dazzle."

The Carrboro Poetry Festival was amazing.