Rich Smith — The Monarch Review
The Monarch Drinks With Sean Nelson
Saturday, August 31, 2013 12:11 — 1 Comment
Sean Nelson bursts through the door with a firm handshake, an introduction, an apology for being late, and a copy of Charlie Smith’s new novel, Men in Miami Hotels, uncracked. His little mop of piled-up salt-and-pepper curls have been described before, as have his clear-framed Ray-Ban-esque prescriptions specs, but the thing that struck me most about him was his really excellent shirt. It was the shirt of a man of some distinction; very thick, striped white and light blue. He wrapped it in a black blazer with nautical-looking bronze buttons at the cuff.Â
Good ‘Oogs – Rich Smith
Wednesday, August 7, 2013 12:07 — 0 Comments
A healthy crowd of people (maybe 50? 60?) gave up a few hours of good August twilight and crammled down the stairs into Elliott Bay’s underground book-cathedral reading room. They were an interesting bunch, diverse in age if not in hair color—lots of blonds. They were young, old, in-between; they were established in the lit scene, brand new, or professed to not know what the hell I meant by “lit scene;” they were locals and they were out-of-towners. I got a sort of fuzzy sense that the majority of the attendees might actually have just been readers and not writers […]
What am I?
Bioluminescent eye
That sees by the shine
Of its own light. Lies
Blind me. I am the seventh human sense
And my stepchild,
Consequence;
Scientists can't find me.
Januswise I make us men;
Glamour
Was my image then—
Remind me:
The awful fall up off all fours
From the forest
To the hours…
Tick, Tock: Divine me.
-- Richard Kenney
