Life of Wry

I’ve heard Kim Stanley Robinson speak numerous times… about the climate, about the Sierra, about the future. He is a novelist, a Sci Fi legend, an avid backpacker, a futurist (though, I think tonight he rebuffed that label) and many other things. I did NOT know he was also a poet. Further, I didn’t know that he started writing poetry at UC San Diego when a literature student there… at the same time I was there (not a literature student)!

He was the featured poet tonight at Dr. Andy’s twice-monthly Poetry Night at the Natsoulas Gallery (cat sculpture in front of the gallery pictured above).

Here’s Stan reading one of about 20-25 poems he read tonight:

Interestingly, there are a few notable overlaps in our life experiences: 1) as I said, we both attended UCSD at about the same time (and Muir College to boot, and both wrote poetry — in my case bad poetry — on the cliffs below our dorms and high above Black’s Beach); 2) we both share a love of the California Sierra Nevada Mountains (well, who doesn’t? … but when asked tonight what hike he’d recommend to a Sierra first-timer, he described the Twin Lake-Island Lake hike out of Wright’s Lake, a hike in Desolation I know exceptionally well, and love); 3) we’ve both trekked to Everest Base Camp in Nepal (about which he read a poem which included references to about a dozen places, all of which I knew well); 4) we both live in Davis (lol). I have to admit that I’ve not read any of his [twenty-some] books (not a Sci Fi fan, but have wanted to read both Ministry for the Future and Sierra: A Love Story), so can’t claim to be a fan, but I have sure enjoyed hearing about all of our mutual life experiences in numerous of the talks I’ve heard him give over the years (including a fascinating conversation with Ezra Klein on his podcast).

Well… it was fun. Especially fun was the break… as Andy made a point to introduce me and I got to talk to Stan for about 10-15 minutes. I really enjoyed that!

After the break came the open mic portion of the evening where about 20 folks read their latest (or greatest) poems. It was a classic poetry reading… poets of all stripes, one after the other, a real mix of styles and intensity. Apparently, Andy always saves Allegra Silberstein — Davis’ current poet laureate (I believe) — for last, whom he introduced with quite a thunder. She was wonderful.

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I composed a poem on the way home.. all about A Street. I’ve already forgotten it!