I was looking for comments on Donn Deedon's passing--and saw a couple of blog entries, one from a former Orange County poet and the other from a man of the cloth living in Chicago (I remember the latter and his wife from the period when the Poetic License reading was in its last months at Juice n Java in Pasadena, CA--they were both kind to me when I knew few poets on the scene).
Then I went to Donn's MySpace page and heard the mp3 with his resonant voice as if he were in this room reading to me. I didn't quite cry, but I truly felt a sense of loss.
[Update: Donn's widow Andrea's MySpace page can be found at http://www.myspace.com/inresidence]
I do miss him (hoping that there might be a way that any unsold copies of Donn's CD ROADS TAKEN can find a new audience) and I also miss the scene of 1998-2000 in Los Angeles where there seemed to be more acceptance for newcomers and different styles of poetry than there is now.
It's happened that I missed some of the most vital venues in L.A.--the Iguana Cafe had already disappeared, to give one example--by the time I came on the scene in 1998.
But, in spite of the different circumstances of Los Angeles poetry now, I'm happy to have been a tiny part of the scene in those two years mentioned above--and also mourn the death of various venues in San Gabriel, San Pedro, North Hollywood, Costa Mesa and other parts of LA/OC that didn't make it to this late portion of the 00s.
Rest in peace, Donn. Thanks for all you did for poetry in L.A. and abroad.
No comments:
Post a Comment