My First Poetry Open Mic

I packed up everything I thought I could possibly need.

My red water bottle, a jar of white gummy bears (pineapple, my favorite, painstakingly picked out of a mixed bag as a gift for my birthday, thank you Judy!!), spearmint gum (in case I had gummy bear breath), trail mix, watermelon-lime chapstick, some copies of Appalachian Ground, a pony-tail holder, some little hand-made “pocket poem” books I stitched together last winter (to give to new friends), a good pen for signing books, a steno pad in case I needed to take notes, ibuprofen, a jacket, my purse, and a printed copy of the five poems I wanted to read during the 10 minutes I would be allotted.

I felt reasonably well-prepared.

To burn off nerves, I had done a good boxing workout earlier. Lance raised his eyebrows when he saw me head out to the shed in my fuzzy unicorn pajamas and boxing gear, but that’s the beauty of having a heavy bag in your shed. Rocky and the  cats waited patiently outside while Weezer, Ozzy

Osbourne, and Poison alternated with the clang of my round timer. I finished, we all raced up, then down the mountain (and by “raced” I mean slogged, with extra care for where it was still snowy), and I felt ready to hit the shower and face whatever came next.

Lance carried out my three bags of stuff and my jacket, we made room in his car for my friend and sister-poet Beth Copeland, who was also going to read at the Open Mic event. (You gotta read her book Blue Honey; it won a Dogfish Head Poetry Prize and she got a free case of beer along with her publishing contract.) We headed down the mountain, right on time.

There was some of that hit-and-miss feeling about the whole event, but really, all I could think about (after passing out gummy bears to my crew, seated all around me), was when I was coming up in the line-up. I do remember how excited I was to see Annie Woodford — whose one-woman poetry reading a couple months back was the first I’d ever attended — come in at the back of the room; I’m only just starting to meet some local poets, and she’s amazing (here’s a link to Annie’s book on Amazon).

With my friends Bob and Judy (of gummy bear fame), Lance (who understands the boxing-in-pajamas thing, hauls around all my stuff, listens patiently, and pays for pizza), plus Annie and Beth (POETS!) in the room, I was buoyed up on a wave of energy and excitement.

Suddenly, it was my turn. I did the thing, then sat down, shaking like an earthquake. I thought it went well, but I was mostly just grateful to sit down again. Beth had her turn, then one more poet went up, then we packed up and eagerly headed down the block for pizza.

To my everlasting delight, Annie had shot some video of three of the poems I read. That meant that I got to hear myself (weird! wonderful!) and share some of it with you. I have the best friends ever.

Here are three of the five poems I read at the Open Mic.

AND, since I have some extra copies of my book at the house now, I’ll be happy to send you a signed version! Just PayPal me, leave your mailing address in the comment space on PayPal, and I’ll mail you one (or two, or three!) out as soon as I can.

• One signed copy: $18 (includes shipping)
• Two signed copies: $31 (includes shipping)
• Three signed copies: $44 (includes shipping)

You can click on the image above, or on this link: Https://paypal.com/LisaCreechBledsoe

Thanks again for listening to my poems and stories, and for all your love and support…