THE CHARLOTTESVILLE POEMS

I moved from Vermont to Charlottesville, VA in July 1984 to attend the University of Virginia MFA program with a Henry Hoyns fellowship in Creative Writing—a tad less than 24 years ago as I’m writing this; roughly, a third of a lifetime.  I received my MFA in 1986, then stayed in Charlottesville following various pursuits—literary, academic, & otherwise— until I moved to the Golden State in 1989.  In case you got here from somewhere other than my main poetry page, that's me, John Hayes, opposite, in Charlottesville in 1987. A few of these poems actually pre-dated Charlottesville (“Dogs as Chorus to the Late News,” "Hen Woman," & “The Déjà Vu Villanelle”)—the first was written in Burlington, VT sometime earlier in the 80s, the other two in Chicago during a visit there in 1984 before I moved to Virginia (all three were fussed with, for better or worse, in Charlottesville).  Two of the poems found here also were written right after my move in 1989 to San Francisco—“Asleep at the Wheel” & “Frankie’s Flight.”  However, just as “Night-Sea Journey” seems to fit with the San Francisco poems, so too these seem more at home with the Charlottesville ones. Some of these poems were published in Timbuktu & Little Friend, Little Friend—again, thanks loads to those editors on the offhand chance they ever pass this way! Finally: One person who most certainly should be mentioned on any site that has anything to with writing in Charlottesville in the 1980’s is Michael Williams.  Michael was the owner of Williams Corner Bookstore—to this day one of the very best bookstores I’ve ever had the pleasure of patronizing, & that's including stores in San Francisco, Berkeley, etc.  Sadly, Williams Corner Bookstore is no more—as I understand it, a victim of corporate greed by one of the big-name booksellers.  So it goes here in “statussymbolland.”  But beyond being the owner of a very good bookstore, Michael was a staunch supporter of all the many writers in the Charlottesville area; he hosted a weekly reading series at his store, & the readers there ranged from undergraduates to Nobel Prize winners, & just about everybody in between.  Michael stocked the books we wanted, as well as the ones we hadn’t known we needed to read; he gave jobs to writers; he was always around to offer support either on an artistic level or a personal one. Although I haven’t seen Michael for about a dozen years as of this writing, I certainly hope he’s doing well in his post-bookstore life, & I sincerely hope he knows how much he did for all of us.  Thanks, Michael!

HERE ARE LINKS TO THE CHARLOTTESVILLE POEMS:

ADVENT POEMS: INTRO    HOUSEWORK AS CHAOS    DESERT LIFE    DECEMBER'S IN THE AIR    MY GLORIA, OR TRANSLATE THIS SONG    THE PATIENCE SONG    THE HOLE IN THE DOUGHNUT    MOVING PICTURES & OTHER       CONCEPTIONS    ANOTHER ST. LUCY    THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN    HEAVENLY BODIES    UNDER HEAVEN    A LITTLE-NIGHT MUSIC    WINDOW-SHOPPING AS PARADISE    LUCY'S ADVENT ADVENTURE    TWO TALES FROM THE UNDERWORLD    ANGELOLOGY, OR THE BLACK ROSE      CAFE    EMILY MOON AUBADE AMERICAN DREAMS CPR SAVES LIVES THE COWBOY & THE LADY ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL FRANKIE’S FLIGHT DOGS AS CHORUS TO THE LATE NEWS THE DÉJÀ VU VILLANELLE MUTANT HEROES PUNKSLIED UP-TO-DATE (OR ANCIENT) GOTHIC WHEN SUMMER BROKE COSMOGONY AS HORROR MOVIE HEN WOMAN THE GOAT BOY’S BUCOLIC VILLANELLE FOR AN ENDING NEW ARCADIAN SONNETS L’ENNUI ROUNDELAY LOVEMAKINGBOOK INTRO LOVEMAKINGBOOK

Please consider our other pages for your browsing pleasure: POEBIZ: page of my poems from my San Francisco days (the '90s) TRANSLATIONS: Some translations I did of 20th Century French poets back in the '90s FIVE & DIME JAZZ: home page for the joint music projects of my wife, Eberle Umbach & I BIJOU ORCHESTRETTE: Our silent film score incarnation - Nell Shipman & lots of instruments!

MP3's from a reading given in March 1987 at Second Street Gallery. Apologies for the sound quality. UNDER HEAVEN        ANOTHER ST LUCY HEAVENLY BODIES     EMILY MOON

You can contact me at fiveanddimejazz@yahoo.com