Andrew Maxwell and Hank Lazer: February 23, 2017

Andrew Maxwell begins by reading an improvised work ("I have feelings, but look...") and "Utility Verses" one, two, and three, interspersed with songs he plays from artist Molly Drake: "Night is My Friend," "Cuckoo Time," and "Dream your Dreams." He also reads "Sketches of Germinal" from Candor Is the Brightest Shield. From Conversion Table, he reads "Suspended Judgments" and "Ottolineal," the latter inspired by his daughter.

Hank Lazer reads from his book of 10-line poems: "Why Miles stuck the round...," "Good God, Bub...," "I sing the body eclectic...," "Slow to slogan, voracious to veracity...," "Fabric echoes fabrication...." He then reads "Three Little Words," "Breath," and "House" from The New Spirit. From Poems Hidden in Plain View, he reads "What Am I?", "Hacking Kabbalah," "How to answer back to what cannot be seen or heard," "It sounds like a kind of whispering...," and "Silent alarms have been set...." From N18, he reads "10/3/10," "If on a winter's day a reader...," "Too good to hurry...," "Mercy and compassion...," and "And if each breath is a year...." He also reads the entirety of Brush Mind: At Hand.

The conversation opens with Norman Fischer asking Andrew Maxwell about the singer whose song he lip-synched during his performance. Maxwell, in response to Hank Lazer and questions from the audience, talks about his work in high-tech and how taxonomy, ontology, and music have all influenced his work. Both poets then talk about the importance of experimenting with different forms of writing and making oneself uncomfortable in language. Lazer talks about his form of presenting words on the page and the defamiliarization of reading for the reader. Both discuss crafting poetry and Lazer, discussing his hand-drawn poems, speaks to the improvisational nature of arriving at words to fit the envisioned "shape" of a poem.