Loose Leaf Notes

It was actually the Fairmount “Four” because one poet didn’t make it. I read as a featured poet, along with Sean Bowers, James Bane and Taz Waysweete at the bi-monthly poetry salon, held in the Norfolk home of poets Jack Callan and Judith Stevens.

It was Mother’s Day and some of themes revolved around that, like Sean’s tribute to his mother (Judith Stevens) and Jack’s “Betty’s Spit,” a funny poem about how, in a pinch, Jack’s mom cleaned the dirt of her kids’ faces with her spit.

I’ve been a big James Bane fan since hearing him read at the first annual Little River Poetry Festival in Floyd.

That was the first time I heard James read The Pledge, but I wasn’t able to catch it on video. This time I scored. “His 1st collection of works, GALLIMAUFRY, is a book of selected poems & memoirs mixed in a medley of life, love & conflict,” reads the write-up at the Book Patch HERE. 

Taz, who was new to me, began her readings by saying “I’m not fancy … and I’ll try not to curse…” She bowled me over right away and I later borrowed her line “I’m not fancy!”

Taz is a prolific poet with poetry books available on Amazon, like THIS one.

I began my reading with “Where I’m From” by way of an introduction.  I nearly ran out of breath at the part where I list all my nine siblings in my childhood prayer that starts with “God Bless Mommy and Daddy…”

Grief and loss and “apprenticing myself to my own disappearance” (as coined by poet David Whyte)  were the themes of many of my poems from my collection Packing a Suitcase for an Afterlife.  After reading those, I noticed a woman in the audience looking pained.  “I think you need some comic relief,” I told her.  She answered something about needing a drink.  So I read  “In Answer to How are You,” which always gets a  laugh.

I read six poems from Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife, including a few about care giving and grieving the loss of my mother, along with my sister Kathy who died nine months before my mother.  I followed those with six new poems. The newest, “The Distance” ( posted above) was the hardest to read without choking up.  I also choked up while reading THIS about the state of the world and our country.

After the featured readings, the stage served for an Open Mic.

The Open Mic was a further showcase of the regional poetic talents of the Hampton Roads area and beyond.

Poet Lisa M Kendrick read a poem that starts ‘bury me six feet / only if you will howl when doves cry / to full moons and bring me rum …  James Nyame got some laughs with a poem about poets who kill in their poetry, which he wrote on the spot, showing the creative and informal fun the readings produce.  James publishes poetry books. You can check it out at Wider Perspectives on Facebook.

It was a rich and welcoming event and a good warm-up for the 3rd annual Little River Poetry Festival, which Jack (pictured) and Judith are bringing to Floyd on June 15-17.  Thank you Jack and Judith for spreading the good word, and thanks to my husband Joe who took video clips of my reading and chauffeured me to the coast.  – Read my coverage of last year’s poetry festival HERE and visit the festival webpage formore information HERE.  /Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads