two poets / two videos

alan baker

 

a delight to hear and see baker read his poems even if the sound is rather distant and muddy.  i call him a friend even if a continent and an ocean separates us and i've not met him in the flesh.  i've been reading and rereading baker's selected poems variations on painting a room [skysill press, 2011] and find something new on each reading.  the book is not only highly recommended but a necessary one, for me, for baker is a fellow traveler in the arts of life and poetry.

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omar perez



i love this performance by cuban poet omar perez.  i don't have much to add to this poem except that it rewards repeated viewings.  perez is a buddhist monk who is interested in the macaronic usages of languages.  i believe he is at work or had already published a collection of poetry titled lingua franca that is not yet available in the u.s.  you can read an excerpt of his hybrid haibun diary called cubanology here.