Agony v. Ecstasy

Anyone who's ever attended a poetry reading knows: Twenty minutes is an eternity. It can be the Hundred Years War, the Long March, and the extended dance remix, all stretched out into one. Even if you're a devoted lover of verse and an egoless person who's completely given up the desire to mock others -- yet alas, you are not -- two times 10 minutes can be painful. And at the Bay Area Summer Poetry Marathon, that's how long each poet gets. The situation requires philosophy: "You give up the agony and experience the ecstasy," as poet-participant Trane DeVore once put it. His epigram also points out that if you enjoy the performance, it's never long enough -- like if the reader were Anne Waldman, a former participant, or local scribe Kevin Killian, who read last month. We'd love to hear David Larsen go on at length. Local and imported poets started May 26 and continue tonight, July 28, and Aug. 25 with their nice long readings. But organizers Joseph Lease and Donna de la Perriere know what they're doing: This is Poetry Marathon No. 7.
Sat., May 26, 7 p.m.; Sat., June 30; Sat., July 28; Sat., Aug. 25