Taking My Poetry Home
[Archive from June 2018]
On June 9, 2018, I gave my first hometown poetry reading in Portsmouth, Virginia. I’d been looking forward to it for almost a year, thrilled to be seeing at least some people I hadn’t seen in decades. I was also a little worried that no one would come. (Okay, “no one” is an exaggeration, but that’s how poets fret.) Let’s face it, poetry readings are not rock concerts with sell-out audiences. In fact, they are usually free with more seats empty than not. Fortunately, I didn’t realize my event was scheduled for Harborfest weekend until June 6 – too late to do anything but go.
As you’ve likely guessed from the photo, my hometown did not let me down. I greeted the incoming crowd (47 is a poetry crowd) for the first half hour. By the time I began reading, my voice was a little raspy, but my nerves were calm. I was looking out at the first 30 years of my life. I could feel the love, surrounded by a few relatives, my closest college friends, early childhood friends, faculty, Principal, and former students from Virginia Beach Junior High where my husband taught, and many of my high school classmates (WWHS ’70). (“Wilson High School Alma Mater / Loud we sing thy praise!”) Some friends drove several hours to get there.
Because I was reading to Virginians, many of whom knew my parents, I focused on my poems of childhood. Those poems visit the same beaches and dine on the same foods my friends know. I must have connected as I hoped, since I sold out of my newest book, but book sales were just the tartar sauce on top of a warm, wonderful, seafood-filled weekend.
Thanks to my long-time friend, Fred Casey, for helping with arrangements, setting up a lunch, chauffeuring, and introducing me. Thanks to another friend, Roger Davis, for compiling a short video of my reading:
At the end of the video you’ll see that Roger shared my fate in fifth grade: having to write an essay on “Why I Should Not Talk in Class.” That was one of my earliest clues that I should be a writer, but those aha moments deserve their own blog.
I was also pleased to be featured in the local newspaper.
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We still had the chance to enjoy a bit of Harborfest, too.