busker

I did my stuff and listened agog to the fine poetry everyone read.

Bob McAllister (spelling?) is *such * a good compère, he exudes warmth and encouragement and wears his learning and literacy so lightly. I envy his students with such a tutor mentor and bet some of tomorrow's scribes are being hatched right there in Bob's petrie dish.

And props 2 Lee and all at the San Carlos for hosting this slam for **21** years. Is that not the spirit of Bainbridge? Why we live here. It was an enriching as much as humbling experience.

I sat at a table with Joe (Fountain?), as buff a guy as I've seen for a long while but nice with it, not one of yr muscle-bounders who scorns other mere mortals. And he writes good.

I bandy the phrase 'good for the soul' but this *was* good for the soul: ordinary folks getting up and sharing intimate important thoughts that they've wrestled to the page.

If you focus and really listen - coz you wont hear it again - you hear some very original thoughts and emotions and *that's* our world more than the published grandees. The grandees show us what's possible with talent, but it's the humble pentameter toilers who are the real nitty-gritty.

I read my Karen-Jo poem that she'd always wanted me to read there; I'm sorry she never got to hear it, but she was probably bending an ear, bless that North Carolina siren.

Apart from a remarkable guy at the end with his sonnets, what amused me was that the bigger and more respectful the intro, the worse they read and the more impenetrable their offerings. I exclude the gritty and powerful Howard whose 'Memphis Jack' I *must* buy in quantities to send to all my scribbling mates.

A thought-provoking day and when I got home, Monk's 'Ruby My Dear' was on the radio, a very cool version by some nordic trio. Perfect.

The original of this post included the actual poem, but Tony Pierce is right in his How to Blog, item 27:

"Nobody likes poems. dont put your poems on your blog. not even if theyre incredible. especially if theyre incredible. odds are theyre not incredible. bad poems are funny sometimes though, so fine, put your dumb poems on there. whatever.