“Tomorrow, the day after, or through the years he’ll write
powerful lines, that here was their beginning.”

KFB POETRY LAB | BEGINS JAN 16

I’m often asked what bought me to poetry. It opened the door of my closet. O’Hara. Ginsberg. Genet. Lorde. Ashbery. Schuyler. Baldwin. Tenn. Giorno. Cole. Rich. Jordan. Clifton. Gunn. Hemphill. Cooper. Dlugos (to name but a few by heart, not to mention their branches).

My first love, Cavafy.

Like many gay men of a certain age, adulthood came early and Cavafy spoke unsparringly what the two of us held most dear, desire, passion, longing, loss, want, rapt in the beauty of men. Fatal. Tragic. Undeniable.

Now, in the year of my 60th, approaching the release of my full-length debut, I’ve chosen to return “to the same fatal joy,” “illicit pleasures,” ‘My younger days, my sensual life—,” Their beginning. “He wishes that he might      feel his love again.”

Six nights this winter, I open my heart and home to read Cavafy with you. Come.

READING CAVAFY: THE POET OF LONGING

with KIRBY

BEGINS WEDNESDAY JANUARY 16 7-8:30PM  DATES (JAN 16, 23 FEB 6, 13, 20, 27)

FEE: $95 (KFB MEMBERS $75) REGISTER HERE NOW

Required text: Collected Poems translated, with introduction and commentary, by Daniel Mendelsohn. New York : Knopf, 2009. The Drawing, the Ship, the Afternoon Evan Jones. Toronto : Anstruther, 2018. Recommended: DUANE MICHALS Homage to Cavafy. Note: Handouts will be provided.

KIRBY. Poet. Owner/publisher knife | fork | book. Chapbooks. Simple Enough. Cock & Soul. Bob’s boy. The world is fucked and sometimes beautiful. She’s Having a Doris Day (knife | fork | book, 2017). A Cocksucker’s Prayer (bandcamp). Recently in Matrix Magazine. The Rusty Toque Issue 13 (Pushcart Prize Nominee), National Poetry Month 2018. UPCOMING This Is Where I Get Off (Permanent Sleep Press, Spring 2019).