poetry in motion

My friend Ellen is doing a reading of a story she wrote.  I go to see her.

The show is scheduled to start at 8; I arrive around 7:30 to meet my friend Tijana.  I don’t see her.  I am told to go to a back room to wait.  The person directing me must think I’m one of the performers. I go to the back room where everyone seems to know each other.  I see Ellen but she’s engrossed in conversation with one of the other performers, a former SNL writer.  I find a nice comfy leather chair in the back of the room, take out the book I’m reading (The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell) and tune out the entire room. 

By 8:15 everyone has found someone they know.  All the round tables are taken with people laughing and drinking and exchanging stories.  I am sitting alone reading.

At 8:30 I exit the back room and find Tijana.  Finally around 9 we are allowed to go into the performing room.  I become a bit more social then, and the three of us pose for a picture.

Ellen is the second performer of about ten.  She’s great.  Her story is funny and interesting, and she delivers it beautifully.  

I stay for one more performance —a college student from Sarah Lawrence reading an orgasmic poem he’s written (complete with sounds of lust) followed by another poem, this one about Joyce’s Ulysses.

There are still seven performances to go and it’s already 9:30.  Time to say good-night.