Journal entry Tomaž Šalamun, Dana Gioia

Yesterday I lost track of time, having three hours to kill, and I killed them very well indeed, 3 and a 1/2 hours worth, as a matter of fact. Today, I made up for all that lost time, and arrive a half an hour early to teach poetry at the Higham Family School. Oh well. I spent some time chatting with Michael Ellis, and reading my mail, a nice thank you letter from the Montana Writers’ Voice, Corby Skinner. I too need to send thank you letters to my hosts and teachers. I also received a letter from Ljubljana. A poet writes, Spring arrives despite the wars in Bosnia. Kajvic hopes the war is finally over, says Tomaž Šalamun who has been a cultural attaché in Washington DC, for four years, thankfully well out of harm’s way. My neighbor George was quite excited about my letter from Tomaž, but I’ve been receiving letters from famous poets in Brussels, Holland and elsewhere due to my massive Uniting The World mailing in December. Iren Kiss sends poems and says she has a job lead for me in Budapest, now that would be wild. Charles McGeehan who writes from Amsterdam that Joke is booking American poets for this year‘s Rotterdam Poetry Festival, and to send my stuff in as soon as possible. Dana Gioia, a near neighbor,just moved to Faught Road from the East Coast. We gather to welcome him. At the SRJC noon lecture I picked up an argument I began with him six years ago when he wrote Does Poetry Matter? He recognizes my name when I introduce myself, from an anthology, and he says Atomic Ghost? Yes. I said, but I haven’t submitted much of anything lately. I guess I should be flattered that he recognized me at all.