Who could resist a poetry party? I could, actually, except I was invited to take part by Jim Pennington - great interview with him on the Thomas Pynchon site here . He manned the mimeograph machine, running through stencils made by anyone who wanted to take part. Below is one example. I reversed the photo to make the thought bubble readable, although I'm sure, you being so smart, had I left it you'd be able to work out the reversed word. As usual with Jim's demos, people were thrilled to watch the magic happen as their work was rolled out. God knows why but a woman wanted to sketch me and that was mimeographed too. Christ! Do I really look like that? I fear the likeness was incredible.
The Beast was there for anyone to use and it proved popular with kids. Of course, they would love a weird machine that they'd never seen before; one which, by prodding a letter, it appeared on the paper as if by magic! I was there in a supervisory capacity rather than encouraging them to do anything creative. I could have done that, of course, but preferred to let them do their own thing.
Doing their own thing meant, for one girl, writing this...
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