the universal nature of poetry

From Friday's poetry reading:

-Great turnout, some 40 folks, lots of students considering that it was officially Spring Break. Also a crowd that came out with a lot of interaction and were quite engaged. Most excellent for a Friday.

-Luis navigates us down the Hudson and Pasig and back again.

-Nick reads from Secret Asian Man, "Ang tunay na lalake meets Barbie at the Shark Bar", then says that that says all he needs to say about navigating place, the them for the panel.

-I vote that Patrick do his next poetry reading wearing tap shoes in a room with wooden floors. I'm wondering whether his feet set the beat or do a call and answer to his poetry.

-Wonderful to finally meet Luis Francia in person. I remember seeing him read at Yerba Buena years ago. Even more wonderful hearing him read his poetry and the precision of his word choice.

-Question from the crowd about whether we were gettoizing ourselves in Filipino ethnic poetry or whether we should be writing something more universal. Nick comments how African Americans enjoy his poems, they relate to the humor and sex. I overhear him later telling someone that Mexicans like his poetry too, because of the sex. I'm starting to see a theme. Sex is universal.

-Enjoyed meeting Professor Choy formally. I must say I envy the students who have so much opportunity to take classes and have access to so many books and authors.

-Talk of writing community. Answers led to the online blog community. Patrick asks who has a blog, raise your hand. Oddly enough, I would have thought some of the students would have raised their hand. It ended up being the writers.

-To the question of whether Filipinos read. Nick replies now that he's in Miami, he's getting tons of applications from Filipinos wanting to get into the writing program. "Filipinos don't read, but they write and they write ALOT!"

-Jean tells me that she swears that she didn't tell her class that they had to write about my visit to class, they did it on their own. I believe you, Jean! Both quite an honor to speak at your class and doubly humbled to be written about. Big swinging shiny metal swords give people a lot of inspiration. I'm glad they got so much out of it.

-Chatted with Nick afterwards. Recalled the first time we had met years ago back at Cody's Bookstore. I don't see Nick often, but I don't know how, he always reminds me what I need to do. Thanks, Nick! (And yes, I reread Denise's poem, "Planning the Fantasy Wedding" from her book "Kinky".)