nobody asked, but...

6:00pm: does anyone know a good bar in the vicinity of grand central. i've decided that i will, indeed, go to the stanley kunitz reading, and i'd kind of like to get a drink before then, and i'm in the office and am embarassed to admit i don't know *any* of the bars around here. so any advice in the next, say half-hour or hour would be appreciated.

11:13pm: i met stanley kunitz tonight. the guggenheim hosted a reading of his poetry alongside new music, inspired by his work, commissioned for this event.

for almost a decade now, i've struggled with whether or not i love poetry--how much can i love an art form that so often, i just simply don't understand. i'm sold now. to hear mr. kunitz revel in the rhythm and sounds of his words was beyond moving. i feel--changed now. wiser. he writes so simply and he understands his form so thoroughly that constraints of meter and rhyme are no longer obstacles; he uses them as tools to acheive honesty.

he made me cry and he made me laugh, and when he touched my hand gently and wished me luck, he filled me with the thrill that is so specific to shaking hands with someone who's changed your life. most importantly, he made me love poetry.

here's a selection for y'all (this is the one that made me cry):

Touch Me

Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
When I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rian.
It is my heart that's late,
it is my song that's flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
and it's done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.