Now if there really was a Swear Jar millions would be made

I was on stage at Kafe Kerouac reading a poem. It had a few very naughty words in it. Mid-poem Rachel R. got up, came on stage, looked around and asked, "Where's the Swear Jar?"

Not quite sure what happened after that, but it threw me off. Lost the second page of the poem and was not happy about it. At all.

You know, I could picture her doing something like that. Heck, I could picture several people doing that.

There's your fund raising event. Swear Jar night at Writers' Block.

Whirlwind of overwhelming

All of the busy, and the sleep deprivation caught up with me at a workshop this morning when a cluster headache decided to throw a party behind my right eye. Ouch. Left work early and slept a couple of hours. I do feel better.

Friday evening I will be a guest of Vernell Bristow on the internet radio show Speaking of Poetry. I'll be talking about all the great things that will be happening on the Word is Art Stage at the Columbus Arts Festival on June 7-9. You can listen live here.

Saturday afternoon I will be doing a half hour feature to raise money for the Writers' Block Poetry Slam team to head to Nationals in Boston this August. It's going to be at Kafe Kerouac form 1:30-2. There will be readings starting on Friday night at 8PM and going all night. You can see the schedule and other information here.

All this and it's not even June yet. More to come.

This week I got everyone's name right

There were nineteen poets on the open mic list at Writers' Block last night. My job was to get them all on stage and keep the audience engaged. There was also a slam. That's a lot of poetry to introduce. I've hosted three open mic/slams now and have to say it's been quite the education.

As emcee you give and receive a lot of energy from the activity around you and I've been on an adrenaline rush combined with complete exhaustion at the end of the night each time. My admiration for those who do host open mic nights week in and week out at venues not just in Columbus, but all over the country has increased greatly over the past month. It's hard work!

Emceeing was an experience I was hesitant to do, it's the fear of completely screwing up, having nothing to say that kept me away. Introducing seven hours of poets at Arts Fest last year chipped a good part of that wall down and when opportunity presented itself at Writers' Block this year, I asked Scott Woods and he said yes. I even hosted during two of the four weeks of Black History Month, thanks Scott.

Writers' Block has also had some amazing audiences recently. We're seating people on stage, the room is packed. None of this could be done without them, and Kafe Kerouac. The poetry has been great too. Cheers to all the poets and the Writers' Block crew who also make the night one of the best open mics in the city.

For me, it's back to being a happy groundling.

Right Poem, Wrong time? Wrong poem, right time?

Fascinating evening of poetry and slam at Writers’ Block last night, Erik the Viking seems to be becoming a regular and should get his card soon.

Seven poets competed in the slam. A couple needed to get their second slam in to be eligible to compete in the Grand Slam, others were competing for practice, others for shits and giggles.

I did not need to compete for points, had a rough day and needed to let off some steam. That’s why I took part. Really had no idea what I was going to read. The phone going off during open mic was a perfect set up for me to read my I’ll Serve You if You’re Phone Goes Off While I’m Reading a Poem, poem. Since I drew the one, and accepted my fate, I figured I’d burn it, get an entertaining slam going.

It went over well enough, but at the end of round one I was in seventh place.

In round two poets were getting serious. Vernell and Hanif were bringing it. Getting their chops developed before they headed to Nats. A guy passing through town named Ryan scored huge in round one with a witty poem that reminded me of Jonathan Walters’ computer love poem I heard in Berkeley three years ago. He tried the same thing in round two, but while punning off of car names he lost the poem. The awkward silence of a poet who forgot how the poem went was in the room at Kafe Kerouac. Eventually he picked up his own thread but drew a large time penalty.

Bryant did well in his first slam, even though he had to profess his love for Justin Bieber.

I was the last poet in the slam and was clueless what to do, so I found one I’ve never slammed with before and had only read one time in the four years since I wrote it. Sommelier of Justice is very foul. A lot of four letter words. Smug and angry, but the energy from all the cussing seemed to work in the room last night. You never know what kind of response you’re going to get and last night stuff clicked together. It took me from seventh into fourth place which was quite the surprise.

So the Grand Slam is going to have six poets: Ethan Rivera, Gina Blaurock, Vernell Bristow, Alexis Mitchell, Aaron Alsop and I. Aaron came in third last night, picked up a point and will be competing in his first Grand Slam. I’m excited as Hell for him and am really, really looking forward to taking part in this slam, which takes place on August 29th at Kafe Kerouac. It’s going to be a very intense night of poetry. Someone’s going to Fayetteville, Arkansas to compete at IWPS at the end of that evening.

Come for the poetry, stay for the poetry.

Hey I'm doing a reading tonight at Kafe Kerouac!

Starts at 10:30. Ends at 10:45. After that, there will be many other poets doing an all night reading to benefit the Writers' Block Poetry Slam Team.