A Wicked Good Weekend

Although I was disappointed when events beyond my control prevented my participation in the “Meter Matters” panel at the Massachusetts Poetry Festival this past weekend, I nevertheless managed to occupy myself for an uncharacteristically Internet free 36 hours in a diverting and beneficial manner!

The freeing up of the Saturday night enabled me finally to book a date with a neighboring couple, who are good friends of ours, to go into New York City and see Wicked. So, somewhat ironically, I could have been in Salem, home of the famous non-fictional witch trials, but was in fact watching the back story of perhaps the most notorious fictional witch ever invented. The show was excellent and I recommend it highly, even to those of my more pretentious intellectual friends who might be gearing up to sniff condescendingly. It’s a great story with a magnificent and versatile set, good songs and a stunning cast–I particularly enjoyed Glinda, played as a Blonde with a capital B.

After the matinee we had dinner at Becco, a popular hangout for the pre- and post- theater going crowd, and then set out on a tour of Mr. E’s favorite NYC hangouts, which ranged from McSorley’s to The Duplex.

My companions got to sleep in the next day, but I rose in a timely fashion to get en route to another literary event I had not thought I would be able to attend, Diane Lockward’s annual Festival of Literary Journals in West Caldwell. I had already delegated the starring role to my Associate Editor, Quincy R. Lehr, but it was fun to turn up and hobnob with the other poets and editors, not to mention getting to beam with almost maternal pride when Quincy and our readers, Eric Norris and John Foy, knocked it out the park with an excellent reading. Not surprisingly, after that we sold tons of copies of the current and back issues of the journal, and Q and I split the takings with the sense of entitlement only an unpaid editorial team can muster. (Of course when you factor in the parking and the transport costs, I barely broke even on the day, but that’s another matter.)

I should also tell you that one of my poems and a tongue-in-cheek self-interview are online at The Nervous Breakdown.

So, although I would have liked to have seen old friends and made new ones in Massachusetts, I really can’t complain about the state of affairs at all!