Afterglow: More Coherent Boston Poetry Massacre Comments

It's been an amazing weekend to say the least. I'm glad I was one of the first readers on Friday. Once that was done with, I just sat back and enjoyed the show. I finally got to see Chris Rizzo read for the first time (I had to skip out early the last time he was at Wordsworth), and Aaron Tieger read for the very, absolutely last time as an unexpected add-in. A great treat, given I missed his so called "final performance" as a Bostonian. For those of you who thought Aaron's farewell reading was a couple of weeks ago, let me quote Henry Rollins from "Liar": HA! HA! HA! HAAAAAAAA! SUCKERRRRRs!

I ended up arriving a little later in the day on Saturday and missed the first half. Luckily, Bret picked up the slack and took some pictures of Fellow Boston poet John Cotter and New York poetry ambassadors Shafer Hall and Jennifer Knox. The results are the collage on the website, which I'll put here as well.

So many other highlights. Shanna Compton was a real joy to hear for the first time ever, as was Mike County, Hassen, Christina Strong, and Sean Cole. If I had more strength, I'd have been there for all of them. Others I'd heard before but were glad to hear again included Max Winer, Sean Cole, and John Mulrooney, who also lent his apartment for a little get-together after day two ended. That led to the Great Boxer Exchange, which I'll let someone else elaborate on (though I'm sure it's going to be a tradition, God help us all).

Outside of the above allusion and the audio posts, I'll let others elaborate on the party's events. Since some didn't want to be filmed, they might not want to be blogged about. But damn, what an epilogue to Day 2. Or was it a prelude to Day 3 since it was 1 a.m. by the time we got to Mulrooney's? Anyway...

I also should thank Compton and Cotter for buying my books even after I told them I couldn't trade. Cotter and Rizzo even gave me free swag of theirs, proving once again that they are better men than I.

Too much to elaborate in one post. Too many people to link, though I will be providing links to nearly all of the poets I mentioned above (some don't have blogs) and maybe some others I haven't yet. Almost eight hours later and I still feel overwhelmed by the events o fthe weekend. Exactly the kind of feeling such a great event like this should make you feel.

Thank you, Jim Behrle. I hereby resolve to try and show up every year you put this shindig on, whether I'm slated to read or not.

A free can of whoop-ass to anyone who attended and doesn't thank Jim at least once on their blog.