Phil Gounis Featured Reader at Tavern of Fine Arts on Monday, November 30

Phil Gounis will be one of three featured reader at the •chance operations• reading at Tavern of Fine Arts, 313 Belt Avenue, on Monday, November 30.

Also featured will be Ben Moeller-Gaa and Julia Gordon-Bramer.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is FREE. [Note: Tavern of Fine Arts opens at 5:00 p.m. for pre-reading dinner and drinks, which will also be served throughout the evening.]

Phil Gounis first came into public awareness in the early 1970s when he and several colleagues presented a series of experimental films in the Saint Louis region. During this period, Gounis also began to publish his poetry in several alternative press outlets and read on KDNA FM radio. Some of the participants in these readings later formed the nucleus of River Styx Magazine. In 1976, he initiated a weekly blues program on KCLC radio at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. His show featured recorded blues music spanning five decades and in studio performing artists. He also hosted and produced a monthly live poetry and jazz program entitled "Verbatim."

In the early 1980s, Gounis contributed to the work of the Soulard Culture Squad. This group of poets and musicians performed throughout the historic Soulard area and published several poetry collections.Later he co-founded a magazine of politics and popular culture called Steamshovel Press. At the end of the decade and into the ’90s he took part in radio programs such as Off The Beaten Path, Poetry Beat and Literature for the Halibut on KDHX FM in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 2005, Intangible Studios released his CD, Form Matters. Since then he has published two poetry collections Some Of These Have Appeared (Firecracker Press) and Upgrading the Allusion (JK Publishing).His work also appeared in Flood Stage: An Anthology of Saint Louis Poets.

Music In The Air

Keeps slept under the stairs
he did not speak
a word
in his mind
Keeps would repeat
the same Prayer
night after night
it was night most of the time
and freezing when it rained
which was all the time
still
Keeps was faithful
to the duty
of keeping hope
and bright expectation
intact

the day after Thanksgiving
as dawn cracked
Keeps awoke on his knees
and heard a commotion
up above his head
he reached upward and felt the belt
of an escalator
and knew
that his petitionary days
were over

-- Phil Gounis