August 2nd Reading

Report on the joint poetry reading with the Harford Poetry and Literary Society.

I will never again say Joe-on-the-Street can't appreciate poetry. We had a packed house! Somehow the event trickled into the local newspaper's calendar. Folks started calling The Vineyard Wine Bar for reservations two weeks ago. I had to turn away three parties. Granted, it was a small room but it was over-flowing with 12 poets, their guests, and strangers who managed to squeeze in.

The poets were from the Harford Poetry and Literary Society, Lunchlines (we're in Maryland). The lounge in the wine bar is a gorgeous space with two fireplaces, three couches with coffee tables and ottomans, and three walls of bottles.

We had a Zen poem, poems about wine, waking with 180 pounds of pooch and an additional dozen of cat, apologies to parents, losing one's virginity, a persona poem, how to get a poem published in the New Yorker, poems about princesses and queens, even one in Hawaiian Creole (aka pidgin english).

Dan Cuddy of Loch Raven Review and his wife, Kathy, were celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary. Had to include that tidbit in the concluding toast. Colleen Webster, who won the O'Henry Prize for Literary Excellence in 2004, read a beautiful poem about a typical day in her life.

The next day we began planning another joint reading, during National Poetry Month. It will be in a library meeting room with lots of seating so we can welcome the general public.

Hurray for poetry!


-May Kuroiwa