Hello, everyone, and welcome! to the first posting by Batricia, your host for this website. "Batricia" is the alter ego of Cleveland-area poet Dianne Borsenik
who, 1. loves bats (and vampires!), and, 2. loves poetry. But I'm sure you've already discerned that from The Belfry's design. I wanted to have a little fun with this profile, and make it a place to come for poetry, photos, and readings reviews.
I want to begin with Saturday night's awesome reading at The Phoenix Coffeehouse (4441 Mayfield Road) in South Euclid, where my friend John "Jesus Crisis" Burroughs performed his first featured-- and very exciting-- poetry reading!
(and where I, during the open mic portion of the reading, read four of my own poems-- will elaborate later in this blog.)
The event was hosted by Vertigo Xi'an Xavier, or VX,
who recorded the entire performance for a series of podcasts, which will be posted within a week or so, and can be obtained at The Poet's Haven. Unfortunately, John didn't have his video camera, so we won't have a video record of the reading. But I did take plenty of photos, and you can view them in my photo album John Burroughs at the Phoenix, Aug. 23, 2008.
After introductions by VX, John started the evening's event out with his poem about "flow", "Swill For Will", that he wrote for a Will Northerner Invitational Blog. He introduced his chapbook Bloggerel, available for purchase here, and then proceeded with "Prison Life", "Holier Than Thou" (which was inspired, he told us, by the story of Baby Jessica down the well), "John Cage Engaged and Uncaged", "Rapists" ("there are some things that are more profane", he said, "than foul language"), "Lobal Warman" (a poem during which he oh so delicately touches himself when he reads the line "we wee men"-- ala Michael Jackson, lol!), a new/old poem, "Preacher Gunn", that he had just finished revising that very day (!), and finished his set with the epic "Identity Crisis"-- a "Beat" poem that runs fifteen minutes long, and during which the entire audience sat riveted, eyes fixed on him, spellbound. At the end of his set, the room erupted in applause and shouts of approval. He was an obvious success!
You can read about John Burroughs' most excellent first featured poetry reading in his own words at his blogsite at the Crisis Chronicles, here. My coverage of this event (and all subsequent events) is totally as viewed from my own perspective, and will be less erudite and more... um, shall we say, girly? LOL!
John's wife Geri was there,
looking very summery in her Indian-design peach blouse,
along with their (and my) good friend and MySpacer from Michigan, Chris Brooks (known on MySpace as Rune Warrior).
Chris shared a couple of her own poems, which can be accessed through her blogs on her MySpace page. She announced "I'm a newbie!" and received shouts of encouragement from the sizable crowd (there were about 40 people there for John's part of the reading; after the two featured readers, it dwindled to about half that). I'm sure Chris will be posting her own coverage-- when she blogs about this, I will insert a link here--and she took plenty of photos, also!
The second featured reader act was the duo Split Pea/ce, consisting of the poet Mike Marcellino and guitarist Abe Ovidos. Although heavily promoted as a "PG13" venue, due to the owner of the Phoenix's preferences, and although they signed a release advising them of this stricture (as we all did), their set featured the dreaded "f" word, and heavily vexed poor VX. VX could be seen pacing and clenching his fists during their part of the reading. His concern, he voiced to me later, was that the Phoenix would be henceforth closed to us readers. As he has informed me that he would like to feature me there, I certainly hope it will remain a viable venue for us!
Commercial break, lol: John, Geri, Chris, my husband James, and I went out for pizza before the show (we tried three different ones: a four-cheese, a Hawaiian, and a pear/gorgonzola one-- all verrrry tasty) at The California Pizza Kitchen, where the food, the prices, and the service were excellent-- I highly recommend this restaurant!
Now, back to our regularly schedule blog:
The open mic hosted many excellent readers, among them the award winning poet T.M. Gottl (seen in this photo with her mother Betty),
who did a couple of poems, including what is quite possibly my favorite of her poems, "Out Of The Desert" (my husband James
--who is not a poet-- said her poem made him feel his own wings growing from his back. You'll have to buy her book, or listen to her own Poet's Haven podcast, to get the reference!). Also reading was Cavana Faithwalker, seen here with his lovely wife Melanie.
Cavana, for those of you who read The Crisis Chronicles regularly, is the one who called John his "cosmic cousin". This was the first time I've heard him read, and he was outstanding. He comes across as a very gentle and sensitive soul.
Other attendees, both readers and non-readers, included Peter Leon, Rubin William from New York, Michael Goldstein, Jean Brandt, and Wendy Shaffer. I'm sorry, but I didn't get a lot of the names... I'll have to get some kind of a system going for that! Steve Goldberg from the Literary Cafe was also there, to enthusiastically support his friend John:
Just kidding, Steve! He actually was animated and enthusiastic, most of the night. I just caught him in a quiet moment, lol.
Where are all the pix of me, you might ask? ROTFLOL, my James forgot to take photos of me while I read, and John/Geri didn't have a camera. As for Chris, I'll just have to wait and see what photos she took. So I have a very few pix of myself. I can tell you which poems I read, though: "Sacrifice and Broken Fevers" (from The Magnetic Poetry Book of Poetry), "The Lost Tribe of Me" (which was published in an earlier form in Will Northerner's "Jungle" Invitational Blog), "Communication Breakdown" (the first time I've read that poem), and as a retort to Rubin's poem about women "covering up and being modest", "One Peachy Day"-- which celebrates sunbathing topless! (I did receive a rewarding and enthusiastic response to that poem... she said modestly.)
As for the Phoenix itself, the coffee rocked... and garnered the approval of Jesus, no less!
(John and Steve, of the "Soul Patch Club"-- de rigueur for serious male poets, lol!)
and we were graciously hosted by Wiggles (that's the name he gave me, I swear), and Julie:
... and a great time was had by all! Again, to see the rest of the photos from this evening, visit my album here. Thank you for sharing with me the memories of this landmark (John Burroughs' first ever featured reading-- you can only do it "first" one time!) evening. And welcome, as well, to The Belfry's Ink Blots first ever blog!