Tuesday, 4:00 p.m.
A reviewer has said that Dave Etter is "a midwestern poet but he speaks a universal language...." Damn the critics who dismiss our writers by putting them in such a box. Should I write of a New York writer: "He's a Greenwich Village poet but he speaks a universal language...."
Dave Etter and William Kloefkorn likely have had more influence on me as a writer than any other writers, so you can guess I admire the hell out of Etter. Yet this, I think, was the first time I have got to meet him, to hear him read. What a gracious fellow, what a good man!
Etter is the author of nearly thirty books of poetry, most recently The Essential Dave Etter, Looking for Sheena Easton, and a new edition of Alliance, Illinois, published by Northwestern University Press.
"If you want to hang out with me," Etter read, "you'll have to learn how to fish in these parts...."
"Jeremy's hair is the color of wax beans...."
Of Bonnie & Clyde: "I wrote about Bonnie. Since people knew about Clyde and nothing about Bonnie, I didn't have to stick to the facts...." His Bonnie writes poetry.... She and Clyde were "restless birds...."
Of a poem he was about to read: "I usually read it at poetry readings because it's easier to read than most...."
"Long nights at the bar, I had plenty of time to take notes...."
"You know, it's almost like being in love...."
"I can do me better than me...."
"Everything I write is a lie...."
"Why do other men's clothes look more hip than mine? Who will buy my old duds?"
"I start off with the truth and end up with fiction. It all seems the same...."
"The guy is older than sweat...."
"The double-crossed strings of a sad heart...."
"Holy Ole, take it on home...."
"The weight of their inborn country silence...."
"I have been writing longer poems and they are really exhausting to read...."
"That's where Holly worked when Holly worked...."
"He always wanted her to love him as much as he loved her...."
"How can I tell God I'm sorry I killed it?"
"He's a good boy but he's no angel - he gets bad grades in school and still wets the bed...."
"I just made it cards, which is a sin in some places...."
"I've noticed crickets don't want any trouble...."
"It's a poem about Senior Citizens, which I'm starting to compile information on...."
How much time does he have left for his reading? "I can't keep time, especially since I don't know when I started...."
"... full of nervous hope and hopeless love...."
"You have to go through a couple of generations, and then they don't care because they don't know you...."
"A lot of people don't know a lot of things...."
"'Always later, always later,' she said...."
"The deep dumper of doubtful return...."
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