Headline: Eileen Myles Hits East County San Diego

November 27, 2007

Tonight poet/novelist Eileen Myles is speaking/reading at one of the colleges where I teach. we’re very excited to have her, and i’m pretty interested to see how my students (and the other students) respond to her out in East County San Diego…
About Her: EILEEN MYLES has written thousands of poems since she gave her first reading at CBGB’s in 1974. Bust magazine calls her “the rock star of modern poetry” and The New York Times says she’s “a cult figure to a generation of post-punk females forming their own literary avant garde.” Publishers Weekly declares that, in her new book Skies, she’s “the native informant of living life punkily on the streets.”

Yes, Myles is a tough cookie. she’s been there, done that. she’s cool, she’s hot, she scares me. but in a good way. she’s old school, East Village, NYC, gyrrl, punk, poet, rocker. she’s the Lou Reed of female poets. I’ve only seen her read once, here in San Diego at Balboa Park, but she was pretty dazzling.

I love this painting of her by awesome artist Billy Sullivan. It’s so cool. I hope someday someone paints a picture of me like this. Well, not exactly like this, but kind of raw and vulnerable and emotional and tough and sexy.

Read a new poem, from her website:

D.H.

Politically speaking
look at this
a word at a time
on my knee
looking forward to a picnic
with my friends
in the afternoon
in their car
but no the climate is such
that I never
arrive
stayed on the stairmaster
one more time
I’m depressed
all my life
this weather
enraged the man behind
me as we plow
into the brite grey light
it’s evening here
bright as a flea
as i enter the history
of intellectuals
who escaped that
to land in
this eternal
sun
burning what’s left
of the earth
never meeting
anyone

Los Angeles, July 2007

If you’re in the San Diego area, come out to Grossmont College, Hyde Art Gallery at 7pm and see Eileen Myles.