with TOM RAWORTH

Poet Tom Raworth recently made one of his periodic swings through southern California and we spent an afternoon with him and other friends at the home of Marjorie and Joe Perloff. I hadn't seen Tom since the last American Poetry conference at the University of Maine in Orono, where the two of us had taken turns photographing Fred Wah as he posed in the clutch of the stuffed bear that stalked the lobby of the motel where we were staying. Just two weeks later I was in Ghana, sitting by the ocean and reading Tom's collected poems.

I had to book it back to Penn State before I could go to any of Tom's stateside readings, but I'm sure they were as quick and well-aimed as ever.