A good night for poetry

Maybe not Poetry, but poetry :-)

Mic Check was a lot of fun. Six or seven first-time readers, which is always a wonderful thing to see. Crystal, Lisa, and Adrienne all read stuff (poems or otherwise) because it was my last night. Kathleen, who I haven't seen in ages, showed up with a friend to watch and ended up reading an Auden poem. Meghan, who signed Kathleen up, read another Auden poem. Brittany brought a friend. So it was a general (but contained) grouping of friends and former students and colleagues (some of these people fall into multiple categories) to see me off. I like not making a huge goodbye. Of course, when I return in April, a standing-room only crowd would be great...

Also received word that I came in 2nd in the Bookhabit competition, to the tune of $250. Also also received word that I won the People's Performance Choice award, to the tune of $500. Thank you to everybody who voted. Seriously. I bought drinks for anyone who read a poem tonight. If you're around in April and you voted, we'll talk about a similar deal.

Next time I blog, it will be from New Hampshire. Until then...

For my friends at Halo tonight

Bacchae

we drive by a small town with no graveyard and people
so crackly-old they must have forgotten to die

we picnic by the side of the road
and corn husks
mutilated by ants
litter the ground
tattered as poor ghosts

expecting farmers
we instead find dancers
bloody as newborns
spinning in the fields
leaving little hoofprints in the soil

and knowing that the old people do not die
and knowing ghosts are poor
and knowing that the hoofprints are very small indeed

we begin to dance

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That poem was published in Karamu back in 2004, but tonight it's for my friends (who are probably still) dancing at Halo in downtown Bryan.

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Man, I just looked at the Karamu website, which hasn't been updated since 2003. Bad site, good journal. Stick to the poem.

How to Use Irony, and Lots of It, in a Title

From blognigger.com: "Dyslexic Negro Cryptographer Lightly Etches Code Into McCain Volunteer's Face While She Remains Perfectly Still"...

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In unrelated news, my dissertation proposal has moved one step closer to approval.

In related-to-that news, the dissertation itself is progressing nicely.

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In news that is somehow related to something, head over to The Splinter Generation, where my poem "The garbage man will make it all all right" is one of the pieces representing my fractured 15-35 year old demographic.

The poem is dedicated to Nandra Perry. She popped into my office today to say that since the poem appeared in The Texas Observer, she's been getting contacted by people she hasn't heard from in years. Ironic poetry, bringing people together in totally random ways :-)