Kim Goldberg at The Vault

...and me without my camera. I hope that Kim will post some photos at Facebook, so that I can snag one to show you. The place was packed. Some folks had to stand. That was very cool -- not their having to stand, but the fact that the event was so well attended. I had taken Kim's hint and arrived early, so I sat in a comfy wicker chair and listened first to Theo's Trio, then to Kim. Before the entertainment started, I chatted with a couple of people in front of me. One of them said that the building we were sitting in was designed by Francis Rattenbury, the same man who designed the Provincial Parliament Buildings in Victoria. I didn't know that, but I wasn't surprised. According to The Vault's website, the building was erected in 1912 for the Merchant's Bank. It is very solid, indeed, and quite beautiful.

I had forgotten what an animated speaker/reader Kim is. Her reading brings her poems to life. Now, when I read them, I can picture her talking, moving around, swooping her arms to illustrate a point.

After the reading, I asked Kim whether I might reproduce one of her poems here. Most of them are slated for publication in magazines, so she can't let them loose on the internet, but this little one is unpromised. It is called squat(postscript).

squat(postscript)

by Kim Goldberg

spew of powdered stars
mouthful of locks with no
keys, boundless
herds of rocks--hobbled, slurping
dustbowls, grazing hardened
thought, wasted
as three-legged atoms, as frozen oceans, crashed

as wave, vacant
with stampede, with gone, with
done for


RED ZONE. Copyright 2009, Kim Goldberg
Nanaimo, Pig Squash Press
ISBN 978-0-9783223-7-3

I saw some of the same people I've encountered at WordStorm, and some others, too. I know that several members of the audience were from out of town. Kim sold lots of books, and Theo's Trio sold their CDs - though I didn't buy one of those. Until I get a sound system that's more sophisticated than the pair of ear buds I'm using right now, I'm not buying any more music. I did very much enjoy the trio's performance, though. Among other things, they did a Leonard Cohen song, winning me over on the spot.

I hardly had time to digest the afternoon's events before it was time to go out again, this time to dinner at the Fox & Hounds. We just got home. Why is it that days off always seem so much busier, so much more full, than work days?