A Telluric Cloudburst!

Back in May I attended the "Cloudburst Council" with Alan Casline May 11th, 12, and 13th at the Gell Center in Naples N.Y. The subtext as provided by Alan was "Friendship Among Poets." 

Gell Center at night,Venus rising in the sky.

The gathering grew out of several conferences focused on Charles Olsen and when things got  started it threatened to go headlong in that direction to the dismay of some attendees who were more interested in the friendship aspect. I wouldn't have minded but was afraid we might lose some poets I was eager to hear from and get to know better. 

After some discussion and perseverance we arrived at a place in the clouds more concerned with friendship much to my relief. 

I enjoyed myself and the company of some of my favorite "living poets." I got to meet and was exposed to a number of poets I had heard about but was not necessarily familiar with. I even met some people I had never heard of or would never have had the chance to meet during those three days. I look forward to getting together again with them at the next "Cloudburst."

While we were there we even took a break to do some Hiking at the "Seneca Point Of Emergence."  The place where the Seneca peoples believe their ancestors entered this world. The hike was lead by Poet/environmental educator and consultant Stephen Lewandowski. Stephen also served as the Host, Head Chef and Bottle-washer for the weekend. Very Cool!!!

That's Will Nixon looking up into the waterfall and Andre Spears on the lower right

Here's a little video of the falls in action. 

I believe that is Peter Franklin aka: "Mountain Goat" who climbed into the falls.

When it came my turn to read I read several selections from my then as yet finished manuscript of "Telluric Voices." I recorded the complete reading but I'll spare you its length here. Alan and his "Young-Apprentice" videotaped the entire event and at some point I expect to be able to post that or a link to it here. For now here is a recording of the final two poems I read. The first of which is the epilogue to "Telluric Voices" and the second a Cento made up of other poets recognizable lines from my favorite poems beginning with a line from Charles Olsen.

The following is a Link 

to the Audio Recording 

on SoundCloud 

of me reading this poem:

2PoemsFromCloudburst 12May12 

Enjoy!

obeedúid~

01/July/12