Buffalo friends and family of Charlie Palau will gather to remember him with poetry readings, live jazz, food, and wine. All who knew Charlie (fellow UB students, poets, and/or fine diners) are cordially invited to join us.

When news of Charlie's death reached us in Buffalo from the west coast a little over three months ago coinciding with Memorial Day, I posted the photo on this page (maybe taken by Cass Clarke in some bygone year?) with the following caption on Facebook: "Kevin Doyle, Jack Clarke, Robert Creeley, Mike Boughn, and our old friend, their fellow poet, impeccable professional waiter and sommelier, and (like all these cats) jazz aficionado, Charlie Palau. The loss of poets is as grave as the loss of soldiers. War may be a necessary evil; poetry is a more necessary good. And music. And food. And wine. Those should be enough. Why war?"

Charlie's fellow poet and Charles Olson scholar David Landrey will share audio documentation from Charlie's Inner Ear Poetry Series reading of May 1, 2016 at Rust Belt Books, organized by Steve Baraban. Charlie's very close friend the pianist Kevin Doyle has put together the Why Not trio with himself, trumpeter Tim Clarke, and bassist Brian DeJesus to play some of the tunes Charlie loved, and food will kindly be provided by restaurateur Mark Hutchinson, who knew Charlie way back when Charlie was a waiter at Fanny's on Sheridan in Amherst (before he was a waiter at Oliver's) and Hutch himself was a busboy! (Fanny's closure in 2010 after 35 years was Oliver's gain.) The rest of us (and you, too, if you are so moved) will share poems suitable for the occasion by ourselves or some of the Beat or Black Mountain poets about whom Charlie was so passionate and so knowledgeable (Ed Cardoni).