well mission mostly complete. i made it up to see mr. philip levine read again. but especially, i got to hear him again. the man has a wonderful bold voice, when he uses it. but often keeps to the frail old man tone. he seems so much like a grandfather to me. ofcourse i never really had one, that was alive for me to remember long atleast. his stories dart in and out about what hes written. most of the time he gives a 10 minute story about the inspiration of 4 words in a poem, which we, as a young audience, may or may not know. then he just goes off sometimes. like his story about Henry Ford. i wish id have caught the whole thing on tape, but i was trying to conserve some as i only brought one cassette. regardless, it explains the use of "us niggers and kikes" in one of his poems, but given with his resounding description of Ford as, "quite a mother-fucker". surprisingly, it met with general laughter. i was in a bit of awe. not that he said it, but how everyone reacted to it. i remember the first time i saw him do a reading, i was warned that hed swear some times. he said shit, several times that night, but never in a venomous way. tonight he had some gusto behind several of his phrasings, to the tune of which i hadnt heard. i like going to hear him read his work though. so much of poetry is lost in how we construct it in our heads or in our voices. the educational system has wasted poetry for most people before they can begin to realize it. when some asshat in 4th grade made you rhyme everything, or burned you becuase you couldnt write fucking hiku's... or later on when you heard 'sonnett" and though "fuck it', it was all ruined. and it got worse for me, as i grew older, the university made me look at things like juxtaposition, and hidden meanings and obscure phrasings as key important features. but by the time i looked at it long enough to see all that, id forgotten what the poem was about, and how it was trying to say it. and while im sure you can analyze levine's work, if you hear him read it, youll ask yourself why youd ever want to. for him its all a story. the free verse works. its not about being metaphorical. its about spinning a good yarn. either a false one or a true one. one that makes sense or one that doesnt. its all a story. and after you hear him read them as he sees them. it all makes so much more sense. it made me glad that i went to see him five years ago. even more so when i can see him now. plus. hanging around a lobby long enough has some rewards. as you can see in the picture above, he was on his way out to the car, but he was kind enough to atleast drop his name in my copy.