Literary Sightings II

Last summer, I gave an impacted inventory of writers with whom I've converged. Not all exchanges were momentous or even friendly, but they all gave me a scenario to share. Here are more sightings for your, er, edu-tainment (pace KRS ONE)-- Curley

I caught ED SANDERS wandering around the east side of Providence with his electric piano tie, and LEGS McNEIL once told me to "fuck off. A groveling letter was sent to THOM GUNN and I have no idea what spurred to write literary fan mail. Never again. I used to write only one Christmas card a year, sending it to 44 Joy St., Boston, MA, where the hermit poet JOHN WIENERS lived. He died in 2004. I was too intimidated to knock on JOHN HAWKES'S door and he died before I had the courage to do so. DONALD HALL never invited me to his farm in New Hampshire but sent me funny postcards that were typed. I used to chat with JACQUES DERRIDA during his office hours because no one would show up, too intimidated by the pipe-smoking deconstructionist. Jacques failed to hold the door for me, and so it slammed on me, the week his book, The Politics of Friendship, was published. Philosopher MARTHA NUSSBAUM, who wrote The Fragility of Goodness, laughed hysterically when my backpack burst open, dispersing its contents. GYPSY JAMES O'TOOLE recited a poem for my birthday and then gave me a gypsy tattoo. When I first met SAMUEL MENASHE, he thought I was drunk. I was. MICHAEL HELLER, whose party it was, said I wasn't. I wasn't. I ran into EILEEN MYLES in a hotel lobby in New Orleans and she was surprised to be recognized. Hail, Eileen!...more to come...