Last Thursday I went to a reading at the downtown L.A. Public Central Library through ALOUD, which is a wonderful series of readings, discussions and performances held in the Mark Taper Auditorium (beautiful venue, great sound) and presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. If you live in the L.A. area and want to get on the email list for upcoming events you can go to the Aloud website and sign up. There were three readings I would have liked to have gone to on that same night, but chose to see Kinnell, as he doesn’t get out to the West Coast often and I hadn’t seen him read before. I was supposed to go with a friend but she had to cancel at the last minute. I decided to go ahead and brave the rush hour traffic on the 10 freeway and left early enough not to be stressed about being late. I took a few minutes to walk around the library and snap a few pictures. The library was built in 1926 and was extensively remodeled from 1993-1996, after an arson fire in 1986. You can read more about the library on the Wikipedia website and the L.A. Public Library Site. There’s a few of my pics at the end of this post, too.

It took awhile for the room to fill up, as it does at most events in this town, but the night was sold out and I saw many of my poet friends settle into the comfy chairs, most reading, or holding in their hands, a copy of one of Kinnell’s books of poems. The evening was relatively short, with a very nice introduction and then Kinnell reading a few poems, taking a few questions, reading a few more poems and then he signed books afterwards. I truly enjoyed just closing my eyes and listening to his sonorous voice roll out into the room. He is an icon of American poetry and it was just delightful to sit and hear his poems, his thoughts, watch him fuss with papers and pages, trying to find the poem he wanted to read, telling us a little bit about the poem, or not. He was casual, unassuming about his work, seemed mildly uncomfortable, but a seasoned veteran of this sort of thing, playing some old favorites and bringing out a couple of new poems for the crowd.

One of the poems Kinnell read, Neverland, is a lovely portrayal of his experience at the bed of his sister Wendy, as she lay dying. Before he read it he rustled around a bit searching for a pen and then made a note to revise one of the lines. I’ve heard he is well-known for this propensity to alter his poems, even after they’ve been published. If you’d like to hear an audio recording of Kinnell reading Neverland you can click on this link to Poetry.org. Guaranteed you’ll enjoy it. Strong Is Your Hold is his latest collection of poems. I just pulled it out and realized there’s a CD that comes along with it. I’ll have to pop it in the player and see what’s on it. Below is one of the poems from that collection.

Promissory Note

If I die before you
which is all but certain
then in the moment
before you will see me
become someone dead
in a transformation
as quick as a shooting star’s
I will cross over into you
and ask you to carry
not only your own memories
but mine too until you
too lie down and erase us
both together into oblivion.

Galway Kinnell
Strong Is Your Hold
Houghton Mifflin Company, Publishers

 
A night shot taken with my little digital. It’s an impressive building night or day. 

 One of the "chandeliers" hanging in the atrium.

Escalators from above.

 The Statue of Civilization

Mural: The Founding of Los Angeles