However on the occasion of his first public performance as a poet Dick has written the following post. (PS I may be biased but I thought he was great and the audience was very appreciative). The event was pretty amazing.
Poetry : Word Party at Viracocha
For over a
year I had targeted Viracocha as the ideal venue for my public poetry reading debut.
This imaginatively quirky poet-owned antique shop on vibrant Valencia Street in
the San Francisco Mission district has long been a supportive illegal venue for
jazz, poetry and performance arts. Yesterday it reopened as a legal private
performance space with a reopening party featuring the popular R&B group
Con Brio in the refurbished basement venue.
But since
it was the 3rd Tuesday of the month, long-established Word Party did
not want to renounce its monthly event featuring top class jazz and open mike
poetry. So the Word Party began upstairs at 8 pm. The signup policy allows poets
who want to read unaccompanied to do so during the band’s intermission,
allowing for nearly 3 hours of non-stop poetry performed mainly by regular
participants but open to all and made all the more amenable by available beer
and wine and the participation of a talented and fully complemented jazz group
with long experience in accompanying poets.
I had
wondered whether I could get a good reception reading contemplative poems in a
somewhat lyric vein in venues known for audience-rousing, beatnik, street and
spoken word poetry. The result of my initial trial would determine for a time
my attitude towards facing public reading. I needn’t have worried. Many experienced
poets cheerfully waited 2 or 3 hours for their slot, listening respectfully and
applauding all comers. I got in early and was more than pleasantly surprised by
an enthusiastic response to 2 short poems.
Dick
Dick
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