(Al Filreis) I'm Al Filreis and this is PoemTalk at the Writers House,

where I have the pleasure of convening

three friends in the world of contemporary poetry and poetics,

to collaborate on a "close but not too close" reading of a poem.

We'll talk, maybe we'll disagree a bit and perhaps open up the verse to a few new possibilities

and we hope, gain for a poem that interests us, some new readers and listeners.

And I say "listeners", because PoemTalk poems are available

in recordings made by the poets themselves as part of our PennSound archive.

writing.upenn.edu/pennsound .

Today, I'm joined here in Philadelphia in our third-floor garret studio

of this 1851 cottage called the KellyvWriters House, by:

Frank Sherlock, author of Over Here (check), Factor School, 2009,

a new book, and co-author of Ready to Eat Individual, Lavender 2008,

and other books,

whose duet with C.A. Conrad, entitled The City Real and Imagined

(inaudible) a few poems is due out in the Fall of 2009. (1:04)

And my friend Ryan