steve cannon’s book

  Posted on September 15, 2014 at 6:15 pm

for those of you who don’t know, steve has nurtured and helped so many new york poets on their journey. for poets who get up on stage and aren’t afraid of history, steve is someone to be respected and seek counsel with. as part of the nuyorican poet’s cafe mythology, steve spent many years “heckling,” everyone on stage from the bar, yelling at them to, “finish the damn poem!” including myself. visiting him in new york, he asked for a copy of my book. I replied in some teenage way, like, “no doi.” after several emails and months, I have yet to send steve his copy. Wondering what my hang up has been, I realized there’s no fucking way I’m sending steve my book if someone else is going to read it to him. I neglected to mention that steve is blind. and my book has yet to exist in braille. and steve knows from my nuyorican days that there isn’t another human alive who can replicate the vocal representation of my poetry. I respect this man and want him to receive my work the way it’s intended. there are tones other readers do not know I’ve written into the poems. there are reciters who are unaware of the emotional projections their voice places on the text. there are poets who can’t allow in what they haven’t been trained to. so I’ve decided to audiobook my book for steve. not as an item to sell. as a series of simple videos for steve to listen to when he misses his second favorite asian poet. I’m writing about it here so that I’ll actually do it before 2015. this will be the other youtubey thing I drop next week. looking forward to your thoughts steve. will send your signed copy after I finish this audio project for ya.