BOTH BOTH: Tom Raworth

[this, what, reminiscence? originally appeared on Kent Johnson and Michael Boughn's Dispatches blog, published early 2017. I'm not 100% sure but I believe it was taken down shortly after being posted, I never found out why, if indeed it was]

Februray 23rd, 2004 was a Monday, a strange day for a reading, a strange night rather, on that night Tom Raworth and Kelly Holt read at Brandon Brown’s apartment in the Tenderloin in San Francisco.

I know that Tom was in town for another reading, a proper reading, I know that I attended that reading; I think it was in Berkeley, perhaps it was a Holloway reading? Perhaps Jennifer Scappettone was organizing? That feels right but can’t say for certain, what I can say for certain is that I took this photo of Tom Raworth and Jean Day at that reading on February 19, 2004, (this photo cracks me up, I hadn’t introduced myself to either of these people yet, I knew of them, through their books, they were celebrities to me, I’m the paparazzi, I probably walked up, startled them out of their conversation, blinded them with a flash photo, pivoted on my heels and bee-lined for the free wine table).

And here’s another photo from that same reading, I spot Leslie Scalapino, Lyn Hejinian, Duncan Mcnaughton (?), Simone Fattal , Chris Stroffolino, Kate Pringle (?), who else?

I’m adlibbing a bit here but I suspect Brandon Brown (full of complimentary wine) approached Tom and invited him to read at his apartment, spur of the moment, I don’t think Brandon knew Tom before that night, later on in the car on the way back to SF I remember Brandon going “holy shit, Tom Raworth is going to read at my apartment…” and me going “holy shit…”

Night of the reading at Brandon’s apartment, Tenderloin, San Francisco, I remember Brandon being nervous that no one would show up, it was a last minute reading and Tom had just read. I remember Brandon being relieved when the first person arrived at the apartment, Kevin Killian.

It was an intimate reading for sure, but it didn’t feel small to me. Here’s a photo of partial audience, I spot (from bottom L to R)

Kevin Killian, Larry Kearney, Elise Ficarra, Megan Pruitt and Tom reading

I remember being struck by how fast Tom read, I would learn later that he was infamous for this reading style, it blew me away that night, casual but intense, hard to understand at times but pleasurable all the same. I liked his approach; different than anything I had experienced up to that point. It was obvious Tom hadn’t planned a reading, he was skipping around his book (I think a Collected) frenetically, randomly, stopping to read a poem at the back then flipping to the front to read another.

Kelly Holt also read that night, she read from her just released Tolling Elves pamphlet/ chapbook Syntax For J.C., and now that I think about it, was that the connection? Thomas Evans, who published Tolling Elves, was still in England back then, perhaps Kelly knew Tom Raworth through Thomas Evans? Did Tom Raworth recommend to Brandon Brown that he read with Kelly Holt? I don’t know, it was a good pairing though, I do remember that. (Kelly was the first poet I was friends with who was around my age who had something published, her Tolling Elves “book” was actually a pamphlet, but to me it was a book, I remember asking Kelly before the reading about her “publisher” Thomas Evans, I remember Kelly laughing at the idea of Thomas being “her publisher,” I remember being a little embarrassed).

Here is a photo of Kelly reading from her “book”