Last night I went to see Joseph Donahue and Peter O’Leary read at Open Books. I had a good time, but I ended up feeling guilty for having written this rather equivocal preview article. Joseph Donahue read poems about Leviticus and the Dead Sea scrolls in an utterly down-to-earth manner that underscored both their humor and their profundity. His interpretations made every line count, and left no room for the cynicism that I usually bring to silent reading (and journalism, for that matter). I laughed constantly during his reading—sometimes at jokes, but also from surprise at the precision and felicity of Donahue’s writing. I liked him before, but now he’s made me a fervent apostle.

I feel even more ridiculous because I wrote my article solely about Donahue (when I wasn’t writing about myself, that is). I could have mentioned that Peter O’Leary is also good—he read a gloriously depressing glossary of birdcalls, and pulled off the difficult trick of writing poetry about the weather. I could also have mentioned that Open Books has the best poetry selection I’ve ever seen—and I’ve skulked around in bookstores across three continents. I walked away last night with highly charitable feelings toward local poetry readings, as well as a $22 Apollinaire book that I didn’t know I needed.

-Andrew Bleeker