Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA – On November 3^rd, 2009, the Pierre Menard Gallery at 10 Arrow Street in Harvard Square hosted a transatlantic meeting of poets.  Reading were James Byrne, Editor of The Wolf magazine of London, Sandeep Parmar of London, Ben Mazer of Boston, Massachusetts, and Philip Nikolayev of Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Nikolayev is editor of Fulcrum: an annual of poetry and aesthetics, and Mazer is a contributing editor of the same.  About 100 people attended, filling the venue. 

James Byrne reads in a clear voice, a clearly accomplished poet who uses eye contact to very effectively engage his audience.  He read several of his own poems, including an elegy for poet Peter Redgrove and a satirical sequence, entitled, Inclub Satires, accosting four established British poets as well as other works.  I found it interesting that Byrne recited several poems that began with a quotation of another poet’s work, and in one poem, Sestina for R, used a quotation from a work by Edna St. Vincent Millay as a part of the form.  To me, as a poet and jazz musician, it was as if the two mediums were joined, since jazz musicians will often quote the melodies of others in their improvisation.  These quotations also serve as signposts to other poetry, like links to things related in unexpected ways, a delight. 

Byrne was accompanied by Sandeep Parmar, who is the Reviews Editor for The Wolf and one of 21 poets included in an anthology called Voice Recognition, which includes British and Irish poets under 35. The anthology is billed as “21 Poets for the 21^st century.”  Byrne  co-edited Voice Recognition and spoke of several interesting projects to come including poetry translated from Syria, Jordan, Libya, Palestine and Saudi Arabia in the forthcoming issue of The Wolf.  He and Dr. Parmar also read a selection of contemporary Burmese poems in issue 22 of The Wolf. All of these authors have been victims of oppression because of the Burmese military junta. 

Sandeep Parmar read her own biographically- and historically-based works that sparkled with unique references and stunning vocabulary.  Were I a man with better memory skills, I might still be laboring at my dictionary and encyclopedia, trying to catch up with her.  As it is, I will have to pursue her work in written form to have that privilege—she has recently completed a first manuscript of poems.  This listener found her work and her delivery compelling and thought provoking.  Her usage is fresh and inventive; her images are emotionally evocative and complex, and indicative of the kind of deep understanding that can only come from being exceedingly well read. 

She, too, finished with works from Voice Recognition. 

Ben Mazer, who will be featured in the next issue of The Wolf, read several brand new works.  After several shorter works, many of which featured an interesting use of triple rhymes, he launched into an incredible delivery of a stream-of-consciousness type poem, called, EVEN AS WE SPEAK, that was the high point of the evening for me.  As I am partial to pregnant interstices left between phrases and strong projection of the poet’s thought process, this particular piece resonated deeply with me as the kind of work I would aspire to write. 

Philip Nikolayev read several works from one of his books of poetry, Letters from Aldenderry.  Listening to Nikolayev read his work is as comfortable as listening to an old friend tell a story over multiple ales by the fire.  Seldom does one encounter a poet who embraces his audience with such a feeling of friendship and confidence.  This listener really felt as if he were a guest at Nikolayev’s house for a private reading with a hundred of his closest friends.  He relates poetic stories of dreams, childhood in the Soviet Union, and younger days as a poet new to the United States which resonate deeply.  One is welcomed to and included in Nikolayev’s poetry to a greater degree than one usually experiences in listening to other poets. 

I left the reading invigorated and inspired and will await eagerly the next Fulcrum poetry event.