Everett Poetry Night—December 7!

Cheese and crackers—the day is almost here! On Thursday, December 7, I will be the featured poet for Everett Poetry Night at Café Zippy in, well, Everett. The festivities begin at 6:30 with Tanner Deraitus playing some music, followed by open mic at 7—then it’s my turn around 8. (Yes, my car is unlikely to be fixed by then—but I will get there one way or another!)

More info on the official Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/160797991319394/

If you’re in the Seattle-Everett area, come on down!

(1 December 2017)

Seattle-area folks: Upcoming reading at Mountlake Terrace Library

On Saturday afternoon, May 27th, I will be appearing with fellow PoetsWest members Terry Busch, Eugene Marckx, and Rayn Roberts (who will be hosting) for a poetry reading at the Mountlake Terrace Library from 12:45 to 2:15 p.m.

An open-mic section will be included, so bring some poems to read after we’ve done our thing!

Facebook event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/776394422538093/

(7 May 2017)

First Time Done

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Last night was my first time as a featured reader. Although I was late in selecting which poems I might read, I showed up prepared.

To my surprise, although I had read at this venue before (during the open-mic sections), I was increasingly nervous as the hour approached. My digestive system tried to stage a mini-revolt, briefly causing me to wonder if I would ever make it up to the podium.

Then my turn finally arrived, and all that went away. I avoided an awkward opening statement, uncomfortable pauses, and major stumbling over words, reading a selection of poems in a loud, (mostly) clear voice. I saw no signs of boredom or impatience in the audience, and the lines that should have gotten laughs got laughs. The two-minute warning I set on my phone (a ringtone made from ‘Moments in Love’, by The Art of Noise) even went off between poems, so I was able to get to my closing poem without incident.

The only real misfire—as such—was that I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I completely forgot about one of the poems I wanted to read. Even then, I did not realize that until afterwards, while I was in my car on the way home, so it’s really a moot point.

I do this again at the Green Lake branch of the Seattle Public Library on March 12. In the meantime, I am one of 58 poets (at last count) participating in Poets Against Hate at SPL’s Central Library this Saturday.

(12 February 2016)

The Reading (a poem)

The January 10th prompt in The Daily Poet by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano, is to pick a letter of the alphabet, and accumulate a list of at least 25 words starting with that letter, then ‘use at least 15 in a poem about something that does not start with that letter.’ Since I did not write anything on Saturday, and today’s prompt did not spark my interest, I tackled this one today.

The list of words I came up with: temptation, text, tunnel, therapist, talk, tears, tarot, train, table, TV, thermostat, tape, tree, today, Tuesday, twin, thermos, telephone, throw, theatre, tombstone, testify, Thursday, trapped, three, Texas, there, talent, truth, think, trumpet, thunder, trap, travel, time, tradition, transit, together, triangle, thought.

I mixed things up further by writing about my experience at a poetry reading on Sunday.

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