Card and Pettet at the Poetry Project

I heard Macgreggor Card and Simon Pettet read at the Poetry Project last night (I know I just spelled Card's name wrong). They were both terrific. Both read with the wonderful, unique-to-themselves quality that makes hearing poetry worthwhile. Rather than tedious and depressing. Card was so interesting and charismatic; I'm going to keep an eye out for his work.

Simon Pettet was fabulous as well. His work reminds be of Brenda Coultas' in one particular way: both poets give me the impression that each word comes at great cost; is written through something; chosen with difficult deliberation. Simon read a number of his poems twice, which created a weird, haunting effect and allowed you to really hear them. Often when I am at readings, words wash over me, a few sticking here and there, a few lingering. But Simon's technique let me hold his poems in a way I never had before.

I bought both his books: More Winnowed Fragments and Selected Poems