Heard the Word
The monthly Café Del Sol Spoken Word schedule got changed and the announcement never made it into the Floyd Press. Even so, on the merit of The Museletter (our community newsletter), word-of-mouth, and one flyer hanging on the café door, June’s event on Saturday night ended up being well attended.
But a certain someone who shall remain nameless smoked some pot before we got started and came down with an anxiety attack. Everyone wondered what was wrong with her and why she didn’t read her own poem at the mic. A surrogate read it for her, my favorite line of which was, “I’m one of those assholes who writes prose poetry.” 
When it was my turn, I read a few poems, preceded by my essay about the “accessibility” of Billy Collins poetry and how Collins’ thinks the word accessible suggests ramps for the poetically handicapped. For the rest of the evening I heard comments like, “but is it accessible,” or “Look, I think Walter needs a ramp for that one.”
Mara’s “Praise” poem was powerful and needs to be published somewhere soon. Chelsea’s poetry knocked my pink flip flops off. Rosemary shared some recently remodeled poetry and a fairytale that George Carlin might have written if he had been a woman. Previously published in Mothering Magazine, the piece, titled “Snow White and the Seven Menstrual Dwarves,” had the 
crowd in uproarious laughter.
Sally, The Countess of Coffee, introduced us up to the mic by our tag lines, coined by Tom Ryan, our local satirist who pens the online “ Floyd Enquirer.” Ryan tagged Mara “Mara Drama O’Rama” and me “Soul Crusher,” because of the book I wrote about grief and loss. Sally may be the Countess of Coffee but Chelsea, author of Java Poems, decided she was the queen. Mara made a paper napkin Coffee Queen crown and presented Chelsea with it, placing it on her head.
Those of us who help promote and host the spoken word are thrilled that the event has been drawing a teen following. Seventeen year old Cameron, a local Young Actors Cooperative member who introduced himself as King of the Hobbits, was a first-timer at the mic. He decided to try an experiment and use his ten minute time slot to talk off the top of his head about his life. He shared that his parents wouldn’t mind if he stopped wearing his hobbit cloak around town and that he recently had a girlfriend that had more swords than him. “Don’t quote me on anything,” he said as he left the mic (eight minutes early). Rosemary reminded him that I was in audience and he would probably be reading all about it on my blog or in the Floyd Press sometime soon. 
Gannon told a story, recited some short poetry and promised to write some of his own soon. Sam read an eye opening thoughtful excerpt from his memoir about growing up in Beirut in the midst of civil war. Rose read a tribute to her son Abraham for his recent eighteenth birthday. His birthday was a milestone for their family. She and her husband had to fight the courts for Abraham’s right to refuse chemo/radiation treatment when he was battling Hodgkins Disease, even though he was given a slim chance of surviving it. At eighteen Abraham is healthy and free now to make his own health choice decisions. 
Abraham read a poem about a wolf. He brought his friend Liz, visiting from Florida, who also read. She had the coolest full length sneaker boots with snazzy striped socks to go with them. I took a picture of her reading and when I was downloading it, later at home, my fingers slipped and it ended up as my screen saver and now I don’t know how to get it off. I like her sneakers but not that much.
Post note update: (N)ameless is fine and vowed off pot from this point on.
Photos: 1. Abraham and Rose Cherrix, and Liz 2. Lauri came up from Roanoke. 3. Last reader of the evening, Allie B. 4. Cameron who ad-libbed, holds up his timer. 5. Sam’s wife, Gannon, Sam. 6. My new screen saver. Click HERE and scroll for more Spoken Word stories and photos.
June 30th, 2008 2:52 am
you have significantly turned me on to Billy Collins now …
June 30th, 2008 4:46 am
i am still laughing…what a county, this floyd, and so much fun!
June 30th, 2008 6:26 am
Sorry I couldn’t come…next time!
June 30th, 2008 9:06 am
It sounds like a real fun time.
You be who ever you want to be and shine.
PS I would be paranoid too if I smoked.
June 30th, 2008 11:50 am
To change your screen saver:
Control panel > display > screensaver, then select from the drop-down menu, hit “apply” and once it’s done its thing, click “okay,” and you’re done.
Sounds like great fun at Spoke Word this month!
June 30th, 2008 1:19 pm
I wish I lived closer or had a much quicker form of transportation. This looks like great fun.
June 30th, 2008 1:25 pm
Boy, this one sounds like it was GREAT GREAT Fun! Oh to be a little Fly-On-The-Wall, for one of these….!
June 30th, 2008 1:56 pm
Thanks, Terrilyn. That worked. But I don’t know how to get back to the one I had before that someone put up for me (sort of a navy blue wallpaper look). I changed the spoken word scene (the girl with the striped socks laying vertical) to a golf course one. It’s not the best but an improvement as far as being able to see what’s on my desktop.
June 30th, 2008 4:19 pm
Full set. “I think Walter needs a ramp for that one.” hah, fabulous. maybe you’ve started a running joke that will go for years.
July 1st, 2008 7:05 am
Is it your screensaver or your desktop you need to change? You can also access by: right clicking on the desktop. This brings up a menu. Go to “properties” and you’ll see where you can change all kinds of things. If you want just a plain blue desktop, hit “none” under the desktop tab. Once you figure it out you can make a change every day if you want.
July 1st, 2008 9:49 am
Got it! I got my favorite one back: regal blue.
July 1st, 2008 12:12 pm
I am desperately hankering for a community such as this! There is nothing in my town that caters to open mic poetry and story-reading. The local library had poetry readings, but it was for kids only. How can I get something started? Any suggestions?
I would kill to have been there and gotten up and read some of my work.
Kat
July 1st, 2008 1:08 pm
Poetkat, Do you know other writers? Our Spoken Word is an offshoot from a writers workshop I belong to. We wanted a place to read and to promote the spoken word in our community in general. We had a built in reading roster from our group, but have slowly been drawing others out. Having poetry readings or an ongoing spoken word night is a good draw for cafe business so most cafe’s would likely be into being approached for hosting one.
July 2nd, 2008 11:09 am
I’m really jazzed that the younger are interested in coming and risking a ride at the mic. It is always a ride. And the evenings just get better and better. Poor Walter gets a bum wrap! He loves poetry too and is the one who introduced me to Rumi and Billy Collins. It was my love poem to him. It felt a little awkward to put that out in front of everybody so to take the stun out of that I diffused the tender moment with the little “ramp” joke. No one else gets to! The story in Mothering was “Snow White and the Seven Menstrual Dwarves” Published way back in 1989, before my last kid was even born! Now she is snow white, and I am still not a crone!
July 2nd, 2008 1:41 pm
Oh, I LOVED that poem you did for Walter. Honestly is was one of my all time favorites of yours. Thanks for reminding me of it. And thanks for explaining that ramp comment to Walter. It was funny! Not taken serious on my part. Walter has always been a great supporter of my poetry.
I’ll change the fairytale title in the front. xo