Jeni Olin at the Poetry Project

Last night, an incredibly fabulous reading by an incredibly, impossibly fabulous poet. Jeni Olin read a selection of new "pharmaceutical" poems and a few of her slightly less recent wonders from Blue Collar Holiday. Every poem is an intense, complex revelation. I've never heard poetry so dense and layered -- without being too... erudite? ... self-congratulatory? What I mean is, no one, absolutely no one but Jeni Olin can make so much happen at once. Anyone who hasn't read her work, well, they really need to.

from Ho Chi Minh:

I don't always seize the human pathetic moment
The fluctuating anguish of day-to-day, minute-to-minute living
Where you reign so transparent & in relief in my pantheon of failed crushes
I could make bark rubbings of your arterial tree
You could never leave me alone & then you could.