We’re Back! @ The Little River Poetry Festival
Mara wants to take our poetry routine on the road. Because we know each other so well and have been bouncing off each other’s work for 30 years, our featured reading at the Little River Poetry Festival came off a bit as a comedy act. Back in the day (2005 – 2012) when we were part of the Floyd Writers Circle and co-hosted a monthly Spoken Word night at the Café Del Sol, we didn’t realize we were creating a body of work about and for each other.
It was a prolific time and we often wrote poems about each other and riffed off each other’s work We were inspired by mutual themes on Peter Pan and Wendy, a modern Jesus, playing Scrabble together and our ongoing poetic duels about whether to punctuate poems or not. Our reading at the festival was a blast but the fun that ensued after it was even more so. We presented a workshop segment where we had the poets in attendance riff off something we read in our set or off the closing poems we read, poetry personified and poetry as protest. Then the poets broke up in pairs to write in back-and-forth conversation. Their sharing was so rich and creative. “This is why I like to hang out with poets,” I said to Mara.
–The Little River Poetry Festival goes on under the big tent at On the Water rain or shine. Check out the schedule on their Facebook page, and look for a spread on the festival in an upcoming Floyd Press. / Poets United Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads
______More from this year’s Little River Poetry Festival HERE.
June 9th, 2019 10:15 am
Oh wow – this is wonderful – so lively! What a fabulous experience – and I loved your poem Colleen! It’s fantastic 😀
It’s just sublime.
And it must be so rewarding, to be able to have sustained a friendship, for so long – with another writer/poet – and to be able to work together, grow – and it’s a real gift, when it’s an honest relationship/friendship – you’re lucky! (I miss having that connection person-to-person) – And I can bet you both cause quite the stir – and generally, are able to offer the world some much needed laughter, love and light.
just an amazing experience, it sounds like – cheers to you, and Mara – and I hope this has offered you some spring in the step and heart, and will sustain and boost you when you’re feeling blue 🙂
June 9th, 2019 10:18 am
Oh this all sounds richly wonderful – the festivals, the friendship, the poetry, the duels……glorious!
June 9th, 2019 12:24 pm
This is such a wonderful reading… you are a very talented group
Who said poetry cannot be fun
June 9th, 2019 12:29 pm
Oh gosh this is just amazing!! ❤️ I so enjoyed the glimpse into Little River Poetry Festival. Loved the reading 😀
June 9th, 2019 1:24 pm
Ah, this is just amazing. I enjoyed listening to you and your friend read. I could definitely see you had rapport with one another. So comfortable with one another and in the reading space. Never knew you were a performance poet. Smiles. You give me a bit of nostalgia as I used to read at a few open mikes. Now I don’t know that they even exist any more around here.
June 9th, 2019 6:08 pm
Thank you for this glimpse into your festival. What fun.
June 9th, 2019 7:43 pm
I’d give almost anything to be part of a poetic gathering like this.
June 9th, 2019 9:06 pm
I enjoyed your festival, thanks for sharing. Yes, live poetry can be fun and entertaining.
June 10th, 2019 6:49 am
Love the Jesus poem! Awesome! 🙂
June 10th, 2019 9:58 am
i love it…yes i do believe he is a morning person….as i..and there i find him each morning…bkm
June 10th, 2019 4:43 pm
I love your Jesus poems. You and Mara inspire me to write my own. 🙂
June 11th, 2019 12:34 pm
What a wonderful event
June 11th, 2019 1:52 pm
Thanks for sharing, and your poem was funny!
June 11th, 2019 9:59 pm
Oh, this was such fun! And what splendid poetry, too.
June 13th, 2019 7:46 pm
Wonderful coming back to that day and evening. Thank you for bringing it to us.
June 16th, 2019 1:33 pm
Finally finding my way to this Blog was almost like “Being There” although I missed this year since I’ve moved here to Santa Fe
But I thought of you all Yesterday along the High Road to Taos through the Mountains of New Mexico since it was a nice sunny day to go for that loop of a ride and get outside
The return trip along the rushing Rio Grande reminded me of Kayaking Little River even though the Rio Grande was raging in places and not at all like the Quiet of Little River
There’s still a lot of Snow Pack left to melt with Summer Solstice a few days away and a Moon technically full at 0831 tomorrow morning, but I’m sure it will look as bright this evening as it did last night
Anyway, it was good to see the photos of friends and places now quite far away just writing this note to let you know today I thought of Little River while at home here in New Mexico
June 16th, 2019 1:43 pm
Thanks, Don! I thought of you and missed seeing you. Did you see this post?http://looseleafnotes.com/2019/06/poetry-under-the-big-tent/