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Rainy Night in October

Our first, and it seemed all too early, especially when most of the summer had been cool.  I walked into Bird and Beckett Books to a gathering before my reading with Bill Mercer and Peter Sherburn-Zimmer.  There were old friends who were part of the “movable feast”, new faces who were introduced, and friends from other connections also appeared.  Then Richard Beban, a wonderful Californian poet friend who has turned Parisian, stepped up and held me in his arms.  Time and space collapsed in a most unexpected and exhilarating way and the night turned magical.

Richard comes back to the Bay Area for a friend who is in his last stage of life.  At the reading we remembered Mel Clay, actor, playwright and poet, who passed away unexpectedly at the end of September; and Susie Birkeland, who had been “resurrected” by her friends reading her poetry at the Antwerp International Poetry Festival.  I looked out to the audience as I read, grateful that once again we were together in body.  At the open mike, poems ranged from an elegy to the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass to the execution of Troy Davis.  The rain had stopped when we made our way out of the bookstore.  I forgot to pick up my umbrella.

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The Flashlights of Innocence

Susan Birkeland

I met Susan Birkeland for the first time at a reading in North Beach Library.  She arrived with an oxygen tank and wearing a breathing mask.  Her head was bald from chemotherapy.  She came to hear her friends.  Someone asked her to read.  Susan took off the mask and made her way slowly to the front.  Yet when she turned around she was radiant and stunned the audience with her passionate recital.  Shortly after, Susan passed away.  I bought her chapbook, the Bruised Angels’ Almanac.  One of the poems in the book, The Flashlights of Innocence, was my favorite.  I share it often at readings and enjoy hearing it read by others.

Fred Schywek, a German poet, discovered Susan’s poetry on the internet through surfing for American poets.  Fred and his friend Annmarie Sauer are organizers for the 2nd European Festival of Poetry and Hafenklänge, Havenklanken, Sounds of Harbor, a multi-lingual project of internet publishing.  Annmarie contacted Nicole Savage of SF Hearts.  She and Fred flew over to San Francisco and we met at the Paradiso recording studio.  Ana Elsner, Bill Mercer, Jerry Ferraz, Nicole Savage and I took turns reading Susan’s poems.  The finished product will be played at the poetry festival in Antwerp, Belgium, in September.  Susan Birkeland, even with her body gone, her poetry lives on.

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