Reading a Poem with Grace Butcher in Painesville

Last night we had our monthly poetry reading at "Your Vine or Mine" micro winery in Painesville, Ohio. Grace Butcher, the extraordinary Chardon-area poet and athlete, was the featured reader. For her last reading of the evening, she asked me to be "the Voice of God" in her poem. Well, it doesn't come off exactly as the voice of God, but it was fun!

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

Wonderful Poetry Reading at "Your Vine or Mine" in Painesville

I was a featured poetry reader along with my friend Tobin Terry at the micro-winery in downtown Painesville, Ohio, this past Tuesday. Our reading took place at the winery/restaurant "Your Vine or Mine." The atmosphere was wonderful: good food, wine, and poetry. The evening began with four people reading at the "open microphone." The included Alynn Mahle, Robin Flowers, and Ryan Manista. I didn't catch the name of the other reader. Their readings were wonderful. I especially liked a new poem Robin wrote called "My Father's Watch," or something like that. Alynn's poems were also quite good, as usual. Ryan read publicly for the first time, and it went very well. He is already a very skilled poet.

I followed the open mic readers and read/performed the following poems:

1. October in Willoughby, 1958
2. Cat Nation Ghosts [a poem about the annihilation of the Erie Indians]
3. Remnants [of the Cat Nation]
4. Before the Invention of Safety [about growing up in the 1950s]
5. "I'm from Painesville, with an Emphasis on the Pain!" an Elegy for Mike Celizic
6. Old Math: The Calculus of May 4, 1970 [about the Kent State killings]
7. Just Under the Surface [on the culture of guns in Chardon and the Chardon High School killings]
8. The Chase [about my old beagle-dog, Jake]
9. Toothpaste Violence [how we squeeze every drop out of the toothpaste tube in my house]
10. Whiff of Despair [haiku about the coming of fall]
11. Northern Lights
12. One Happy Moment [portrait of my daughter Carolan and grandson Colin doing cartwheels at Patterson Apple Farm in Chesterland]

I got to sing a bit and howl like a beagle as I performed some of these poems--great fun!

My performance was followed by Tobin Terry. Many of Tobin's poems were funny, especially the one about the Johnnycake Turkey, "Mr. Gobbles." And the brilliant one about his mother, "Nursery Crimes." Tobin sang much of that poem. This is one of my all-time favorite poems.

The "Your Vine or Mine poetry reading, organized by Margie DeLong, and co-hosted by Margie and Tobin, will occur on the first Tuesday of every month from now on. The next one will be Tuesday, November 5th, from 6:30 to 8:30. The featured poet will be Grace Curtis, from Waynesville, Ohio.

Thanks to Margie for getting this going!