We had a friend visit from Spokane over the weekend. Actually, at least for Raf, it was a combo work/play kind of weekend. Colonus Publishing is getting a new book out soon and they were working hard on some details.
It was a really fun weekend. Our friend is a writer/small press owner and we talked a lot about writing. At dinner Sunday he pulled a copy of Howl by Allan Ginsberg out of his inside jacket pocket, mentioning that he was reading it instead of napping. I was impressed. I spent a good deal of time studying the beat poets in my twenties and hadn’t thought bout Howl for many years. It made me want to read it again myself.
We went to the Chinese Gardens on Monday and did the whole tourist thing. It was fun. I took the photo above at the tea-house. I wish it was a better photo. The composition isn’t bad but I need to learn a lesson or two about exposure.
Our friend made a very profound statement that I’ve been thinking about the past few days. We entered a building that had a vignette set up that showed people what an art studio in Medieval China would look like. Our friend liked this very much and exclaimed, “Creative spaces are holy places.” I couldn’t agree more. But he said it much more succinctly than I did.
Later on we walked over to Powells and I bought Howl, along with some other poetry books (Billy Collins and Rilke).
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