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| “Where is the tour bus?” (photo by Thom Francis) |
I don’t usually “allow” guitar players at my poetry open mic, having in the past been too often the ugly-stepchild-of-poetry at music open mics, but tonight I had to make an exception because the unique poetry-performance duo Murrow was the featured performer. It was also the night of the annual visit from Sanity Clause. But unfortunately for Sanity Clause the tour bus full of suburban housewives couldn’t find a parking spot, so most of the bad poets to sit on his lap were guys; some seemed to enjoy it more than others, hmm. There was a gift of poetry for all, of course. The muse for the night was one of my favorite poets, Enid Dame; I read her wonderful gift from 1996, “Holiday Poem.”
First up for the open mic was a third Thursday regular, Alan Catlin with a look at “Moe, Larry & Iggy Pop,” bar stories of fake veterans. Beatriz Loyola graciously responded to my request to read a poem in Spanish, her native tongue, with “Recuerdo infantil” by Antonio Machado (1875 – 1939), then followed it with a translation in English. Josh McIntyre was next with his brief poem “Precipitant” thinking about life, with images of protestors in the street. D. Alexander Holiday‘s “This Involuntary Leave of Absence as Punishment Routine” continues the saga of his last book Emails from Satan’s Daughter.
Gene Damm read a short poem, “Motivation,” from his book Guanyin and other poems (The Troy Book Makers, 2009). Joe Krausman‘s full poem was titled “Half.” Bob Sharkey returned with “Surveillance,” another poem in his self-imposed 64-word form.
