Going From Bad to Verse

So there I was at 12:45 on a Tuesday afternoon somewhere along Vachel Lindsay's The Santa Fe Trail when my friend Jim Johnston took this picture. It's the picture of a poet engaged in the second-most important mission of the poet. The first most important mission of the poet of course is writing poems, and my presentation included two of my own (Vachel Was a Preacher and Don't You Take the Mashed Potatoes). I recited these Vachel Lindsay poems:
. . . 1. The Illinois Village
. . . 2. The Proud Farmer
. . . 3. The Beggar Speaks
. . . 4. The Flute of the Lonely
. . . 5. The Congo
. . . 6. The Santa-Fe Trail
. . . 7. A Curse for the Saxophone
. . . 8. Niagara
. . . 9. The Broncho That Would Not Be Broken
. . 10. Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight
. . . . The last two were by request. I have enough Vachel Lindsay poems in my pocket (memorized and ready to recite) that so far, when I've asked if an audience member has a favorite Vachel poem that he or she wants to hear, I can respond by reciting the poem.
. . . . . A woman I met at the Vachel Lindsay Home State Historic Site last December (first name: June) and I was privileged to share poetry at Rochester Public Lbrary's Topics to Chew on lecture series because I told her I wanted to speak to her group, and she talked to the right people, and library director Nancy Kruse invited me. That's her, posing with moi before she knew what she was in for.
. . . . Springfield architect and friend Jim Johnston, artist Vern Taylor and I made the trip, courtesy of Jim's good wheels, and the presentation went well. Jim and Vern have seen me "perform" as a songwriter/slinger before, but not so much as a poet. And I know them primarily in connection with my ArtsLinks.com enterprise http://www.aeroknow.com/artslinks.htm so it was a treat to share their hometown good vibes during the presentation.
. . . . The effort could not have gone better. Springfield poets who hang with Poets & Writers Literary Forum of Springfield http://www.pwlf.com have heard me recite Vachel Lindsay poems for the past 10 years, and because I like to recite them often -- no better way to maintain proficiency than to recite poems often -- many P&WLF members have heard me recite these poems so many times, some of them can almost move their lips silently as I do my "thang." I know some performing artists weary of the same songs over and over, but when there are people I don't know in the audience (and there were almost 40 in Rochester) I crank up my performance level and truly enjoy reciting any poem I know. So there was great karma, and all seemed to enjoy the event.
. . . . Thanks to Rochester Public Library and Nancy Kruse for the opportunity and to Jim and Vern for helping make it happen.
. . . . Future postings here will include my poetry (probably more than you really want to know about it), thoughts about sharing poetry in public, what makes a poem work in public. I've seen many poems and poets succeed, and many poems and poets not succeed. I believe too many people walk away from poetry, don't enjoy poetry when shared aloud, because they've not heard poetry shared as it should be shared. Your thoughts shared in feedback to this blog will help determine content here, so don't be shy about picking up what I hurl in your direction and hurling it back.
. . . . Thanks for reading this!