Great Night of Poetry in Painesville

Last night we had our second monthly poetry reading in Painesville at the winery/restaurant "Your Vine or Mine." Tobin Terry emceed the evening of poetry reading. The night was kicked off by Linda Tuthill and her husband Tim Tuthill. Linda's poems exhibited very precise word choice and a great eye for the natural world. The poem I liked best was set in Pennsylvania Dutch country, where she grew up. The poem even had a bit of Pennsylvanian German in it (I remember hearing the phrase "was ist los?" which means either "what is going on" or "what is wrong?"). Tim Tuthill followed with very short, exquisitely formulated poems. They were over in a flash and you had to really pay attention for the punch, the twist. You could tell that both Linda and Tim had read a lot of poetry and had written a lot, they were that good.

Margie DeLong then read some poems, as did I. Margie is the person responsible for resurrecting the Painesville poetry night, and is now co-hosting the event with Tobin Terry. Margie's poems were wonderful. I like her eye and how she reached into memory for her poems. My poems were about the coming of winter and waiting for the grace to get through the darkness. I hope the heaviness of these poems didn't put a pall over the evening! I tried for great sounds in this poem (I love sound and rhythm--the music of poetry) combining with the imagery of darkness and storms--and grace.

The featured reader of the night was a poet from the Dayton/Waynesville area of southwest Ohio, Grace Curtis. I didn't know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. Grace is a terrific poet and a great reader/performer of her own poems. Her poems play with words and ideas, reach into memory like the poems of Linda Tuthill and Margie DeLong (and actually, the way many of my own poems do). Grace's poems are also a lot of fun, and at times very humorous. And she is not afraid to play with some big, complex ideas. In short, Grace's performance was terrific.

Many of Grace's poems can be found at her website: http://n2poetry.com/poems/

Below are some photos of the readings:

Tobin Terry

Linda Tuthill

Tim Tuthill

Margie DeLong

Grace Curtis