Dinner With Bill

Back at Spoonriver Restaurant for another "Salon", this time with the noted poet, essayist, and bon vivant Bill Holm. This was a most informal occasion, the six of us were clustered around Bill- eating, drinking, listening to Bill's stories, with an occasional poem thrown into the mix. Bill even passed the lamb stew (which he was enjoying immensely) around the table, so that we could all savor it.

The conversation's arc spanned a wide range of subjects: Peer Gynt at the Guthrie, Robert Bly, Iceland (of course), but also to Norway and Denmark, with a few side trips to Minneota, Minnesota, where Bill grew up and currently lives when not in Hofsós. As the dinner wound down, the talk turned to Halldór Laxness; some of the people there had never read any of his work, but I saw more than one person writing down his name and the titles which had been mentioned.

One reader at a time, one reader at a time.