About 260 people reserved seats for The Best American Poetry 2012
West Coast Launch at the
Mill Valley Public Library on November 8. 260 people! That's quite a turnout for a mid-week poetry reading. To accommodate the
crowd, City Librarian
Anji Brenner and library staff removed the periodical shelves and emptied the room to
set up chairs facing a fireplace that was set into a white stucco
Spanish-revival wall. A fire roared. The ceilings soared. The big windows framed
the pine-y outdoors of beautiful Marin County.
The 260 came to see and hear eight poets who were
picked by guest editor Mark Doty for inclusion in this year’s volume of
the annual anthology. The lineup of readers included
heavy-hitters such
as Rae Armantrout, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirschfield, and Kay Ryan along
with Dean Rader and Amy Glynn Greacen, Bay
Area poets with followings of their own.
Bruce
Bond, originally from southern California like me, came in from Texas
and I
from Orange County. These particular poets have a way with a
crowd— they're not just confident public speakers but the kind that can
hold an audience
in thrall. It was therefore a night of entertainment and emotional
connection
from beginning to end. The audience listened and responded with
laughter, that
“mmmm” sound of understanding, spontaneous applause, and later, kind
words of thanks. I was in awe to be in such company, but
found everyone to be so welcoming and warm that I did not feel nervous
or
out-of-place among these rock stars of the poetry world.
The
format of the evening was to have each poet introduce the
next by responding to his or her poem in the anthology instead of
by reciting awards and bona fides. These responses were personal,
respectful, and
insightful. Kay Ryan revealed her admiration for what Rae Armantrout
leaves out of a poem as much as for what she keeps in; Brenda Hillman
singled out the spiritual
notes in Jane Hirshfield’s work. Dean Rader noted that he finds
himself placed between Robert Pinsky and Kay Ryan in the anthology, and I
think
we all understood his trepidation introducing the great Kay Ryan, though
he
did so with humor and aplomb. This format for introductions, unique
in my experience, was Anji Brenner's idea. It
worked beautifully and I'd like to see other coordinators try it.
The library reference desk had been turned into a bar. I am a
librarian and was on something of a busman’s holiday, so I made conversation with one of
the bartending staff members when I sighted the Haines Criss-Cross Directory behind her. Do we still get requests
for Haines Criss Cross? she asked. "No," I said but our segue into talk about the conversion of reference books to
electronic format was interrupted by the clamor of the entire audience lining
up for more wine. The wine flowed generously all night, free of charge and
happily shared by the library staff. The audience stayed for over two hours,
and was as engaged at the end of the night as they were at the beginning. When Brenda Hillman asked for a show of
hands, we discovered that many in the audience had traveled from San Francisco
and the East Bay and from as far away as Sacramento. Driving
around the Bay Area is not easy, so when people make a long drive to
come to an event, it means they were committed to being there.
As a library manager as well as a poet, I contend with the
changing notion of the public library (they ask: “Who needs a library in the
age of Google?”). The Best American Poetry 2012 West Coach launch at the Mill Valley Public Library is
an example of the public library at its best: a place for storage and retrieval
of information, a place for contemplation, but also a welcoming space for
cultural and community gatherings. This night in November for The Best American Poetry 2012
brought a community of readers into the public
library because of poets and poetry. Not only do people read poetry,
they come out in large numbers to hear it. This pleases me no end.
— Stephanie Brown