Dave Brinks, New Orleans poet
Words slip, slide, as poetic molecules collide in the den of New Orleans's 17 Poets meeting weekly at the Gold Mine Saloon in the French Quarter. Last night, The New Orleans Literature Examiner dropped in on these poets. The group featured Jamey Jones, a writer from Florida who's living in Brooklyn, NY, right now.
Jones read from two chapbooks of his work, Blue Rain Morning (Fell Swoop, a local publisher) and Twelve Windows (Brown Boke, self-published). His poetry, while revealing his inner life, seems inspired by observations of life's details most people overlook in the bustle of this techo-blitzed world. However he also read a poem that is bigger than the string of moments we call life, his poem "Swoon," about a friend who died a tragic death.
He plays with words as well, something the audience could tell most when he read an N+7 poem.
Replace every noun in a text with the noun seven entries after it in a dictionary. For example, "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago..." (from Moby-Dick) becomes "Call me islander. Some yeggs ago...". Results will vary depending upon the dictionary used. This technique can also be performed on other lexical classes, such as verbs. (Oulipo)
He read a poem about observing people in a park and followed it with the N+7 version of the same poem.
After his reading, the Gold Mine's owner, Dave Brinks, a poet himself, introduced Jimmy Ross, also a writer, who was the emcee for the open mic part of the show. Ross, a man of small build with long, blond dreadlocks, was as entertaining as some of readers, telling the audience about squirrels raiding a pecan tree in the yard of his 7th Ward home and his hope of finally getting pecans from the tree himself when a hawk perched on the fence one day.
Poets and fiction writers, having signed up for the open mic, came up and read or recited their works. One young woman from Dallas, Tex., calling herself "Sullen" performed two spoken word pieces reflecting various surges of angst and corruption. Many of the readers read short poems; however, one woman read fiction.
Brinks read from his book of poems The Caveat Onus. Here's video of part of his reading.
Per its webpage, 17 Poets! features ...
nationally & internationally renowned poets, writers and painters who are featured regularly throughout the year in this multi-disciplinary art space. 17 Poets! Reading Series is coordinated by poets Dave Brinks and Megan Burns. This very celebrated literary series has been running 3 years and has produced over 160 literary programs in that time.
The Gold Mine Saloon is located at 705 Dauphine St., on the corner of Dauphine and St. Peter streets, New Orleans, La. The Thursday night poetry readings begin sometime after 8:00 p.m. Phone: (504)586-0745.
Nordette Adams is the New Orleans Literature Examiner and a BlogHer.com Contributing Editor. Check out more of her work at Her411.
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