I'll be performing my poems with Roy Gokenbach on guitar at Duff's

Roy Gokenbach at the Poetry Scores prop shop, borrowing the WPA Guide to Missouri, which was used as a prop in our movie Go South for Animal Index.

Self-promotion is the curse of the independent, and I should be starting to tell anyone who'll listen that on Friday, January 6 I'll release a new chapbook of poems, The Shape of a Man, at Mad Art Gallery as part of an art exhibit of the same name (initially organized by Amy VanDonsel).

But before then -- like, next Monday, November 28 -- I'm part of a Chance Operations reading and should tell the people about that first.

I've company at the Chance Operations event, to be held Monday at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid, with doors opening at 7:30 p.m. and it costing you $3. The other poets are Drucilla Wall and Julia Gordon-Bramer; their names link you to Chance Operations posts about them (my man Tony Renner understands this self-promotion curse). I take it this becomes an open mic night after the scheduled poets do our things.

Even when I'm performing, I'll have company. I've invited my friend Roy Gokenbach to play guitar as I recite my poems. Roy is kind of a trip. He was the founding guitarist in the Erin Bode Group and also has a choice small role (Leroy) in Daniel Bowers' A: Anonymous, which I take to be the best independent movie that will ever be made in St. Louis.

Roy also used to be my barber at Wyoming Barber Shop when I lived on South Grand, inevitably just before South Grand became hip (I know, now it's not really hip anymore, again). He can really play that guitar. I really enjoyed rehearsing my poems with him at the Poetry Scores prop shop last week. I didn't record that rehearsal, and though I borrowed Roy's only copy of the Erin Bode Group CD with the intention of excerpting some of his playing to post here, I've not done that either.

So you'll just have to come down to Duff's next Monday and hear us for yourself. We'll be performing selections from my chapbook The Shape of a Man, which Intagliata Imprints will release Friday, January 6 at Mad Art in Soulard.