Winch & Joselow at Chapters

Friday night saw two great DC area poets reading downtown at Chapters Bookstore.  Terence Winch and Beth Joselow read from their new books of poetry.  The store was crowded and the audience warmed to the work of these longtime fixtures in the local poetry scene.

Terence Winch read from his new collection of poetry, Boy Drinkers (Hanging Loose Press).

The book has a beautiful cover (an important thing for me) with a street scene Madonna.  The poems are an amazing evocation of Winch's strict Catholic upbringing and his memories of specific priests and nuns he remembered from his Irish Catholic Bronx childhood.

I especially loved a poem titled "Elegy" that recounted one of his favorite priests and a mistake with a footnote in the Norton Anthology of Poetry.  The poems are at turns sad and funny but always poignant.  He's a really great poet and I enjoyed hearing him read.  They took turns reading and Winch's second turn had him reading some of his newer work.  A very enjoyable reading.

Beth Joselow read from her new book, Begin At Once (Chax Press).  Her poems couldn't be more different than Winch's and provided a great counterpoint for the evening.  Her poems present a non-narrative glimpse into her stream of consciousness. 

I loved the barrage of images in her poems.  She read one poem that was composed of a near alphabetical reading of the names of military armaments.  The title of the poem was "Tantrum" and it made quite an impression on the crowd.

It was a great evening of very live and wonderful poetry.  There was a nice discursive "poetry happy hour" an hour before the reading with Joselow and Winch joining in a conversation about the life of the poet, the tools of the poet (journals and such) and the changing technology of poetry, blogs and publishing.  I wish more readings featured a discussion like this because it made for a good give and take among the participants -- many of them poets and writers themselves.