Loose Leaf Notes

There was lime green, kelly green, olive, and teal represented at the third Saturday Spoken Word Night, two days before St. Patrick’s Day. Even the sign-up sheet that our master of ceremonies, Alli, held as she announced the readers was green. Alli – standing in for Café Del Sol owner Sally, who we were told had a singing gig up the street – sometimes announced the readers in an accent that sounded Swedish, but I heard someone say it was from Wisconsin. Personally, I was hoping for an Irish brogue.
I didn’t use my brogue, like last year, but I did share a poem about someone who regularly wears green: Peter Pan. I hadn’t read “The Lost Adults of Neverland” since I shouted it from the poet’s soap box at Floyd Fest last summer. I also shared my poem about finding my first four leaf clover pressed between the pages of a library book sale book. The said book was used as a prop, the four leaf clover was waved in the air, and the word shamrock was mentioned.
Pat read from her book, Strange Tales of Floyd County, about a Floyd banshee, a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger.
Cheryl (to the right) did a stand up routine based on the fact that she is NOT a “retired” school teacher, as she was described in the Floyd Press Spoken Word announcement (written by me). Although she was a public school teacher for many years, she’s currently unemployed and had just hung a “teacher looking for students” want-ad sign on the Winter Sun bulletin board, she told us. It wasn’t just part of her act. She actually gave me one the ads at end of the night so I could put it in the April’s Museletter (our local newsletter).
Alli C, a creative writing student at Hollins University, did two performance pieces, one of her own and one written by her favorite slam poet, Big Papa E. I was impressed with a poem Mara read, which I think was about one of her first loves. I’ve been trying to remember a line in it about how they climbed like ivy up the side of the university building where his father (a professor, I think) was working.
Rosemary took us on a fun ride, reading two versions of the same poem, and in between those she read one about the process of rewriting the first of the two. She also read a poem on how to grow Rosemary. Apparently, the plant and the woman (I gathered) should never be pot bound.
Mara’s daughter, Kyla, won the imaginary prize for wearing the best Irish green. She joined her mom and Ali, closing the evening with a song from Juno in which the audience got involved, singing the refrain: remember that I love you … remember that I love you … remember that I love you. No leprechauns or limericks were spotted.

Post notes: Apologies to those who visited yesterday and couldn’t comment. I couldn’t post either. I guess my blog needed a good night’s sleep to fix itself, which I hope it did. Also, my commentary on autism and vaccines came out in the Roanoke Times today. You can read it HERE.