THIRTEEN WAYS OF LOOKING AT A POETRY READING

                       After Stevens

I.

Among twenty folding chairs,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the poet.

II.

I was of three minds,

Like a bookstore

In which there are three poets.

III.

The poet nodded in the steam heat.

It was a small part of the ritual.

IV.

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a poet

Are infinite.

V.

I do not know which to prefer,

The mixing of metaphors

Or the tangle of images.

The poet clearing his throat

Or just after.

VI.

Neon filled the large window

With urban light.

The reflection of the poet

Crossed it, to and fro.

The mood

Flashed in the light

An indecipherable phrase.

VII.

O vain men of Philly

Why do you carry scarlet fans?

Do you not see how the poet

Trips over the lines

Of the verses about you?

VIII.

I know Philly accents

And limping, inescapable meters;

But I know, too,

That the poet is involved

In what I know.

IX.

When the poet coughed into the mic,

It signaled the end

Of one too many poems.

X.

At the sight of poets

Climbing the carpeted stairway

Even the whores of Thirteenth Street

Would cry out sharply.

XI.

He rode down Chestnut

In a SEPTA bus.

Once, a joy pierced him

In that he mistook

The squeal of his microphone

For poetry.

XII.

The Baron is taping.

The poet must be reading.

XIII.

It was full moon all night,

It was shining

And it was going to shine.

The poets perched

On the folding chairs.

Miriam Kotzin teaches creative writing and literature at Drexel University, where she co-directs the Certificate Program in Writing and Publishing. She is a contributing editor of Boulevard  and a founding editor of Per Contra. Her work has appeared in such places as Shenandoah, Eclectica, Southern Humanities Review, and Mid-American Review. Kotzin has published three collections of poetry, most recently Taking Stock (Star Cloud, 2011), and a collection of flash fiction, Just Desserts (Star Cloud, 2010). A fourth collection of poems, The Body's Bride, will be published by David Robert Books in early 2013.