I'm Reading Poems Tonight--Come Join Me!

Just a reminder that if you're in the South Florida area and need a Tuesday night outing, I'll be one of three poets reading their poems tonight. The reading starts at 7:30 in the Southern Breezes Cafe of Broward College (the South campus, 7200 Pines Boulevard in Pembroke Pines). The Southern Breezes Cafe is on the east side of the campus (the public library branch is on the west side of the campus). The reading is free, of course, but books will be available for sale.

I've decided to take a risk and read some of the poems from my Office Life in America series; my poem, "Missing," is part of that series (go here to read it). But I worry that an entire reading from that series might be too relentlessly grim, so I'll close with some of the more uplifting poems from my chapbook.

One of my chapbook length manuscripts that I created during my Mepkin Abbey retreat consists primarily of the Office Life in America series of poems. I worried a bit that the collection would be too grim (although thematically, that could work, depending on your view of modern office life), so I tried to mix in some whimsical poems and some poems that have some humor, even if it's dark humor. I tried to stick to that approach when preparing for the reading tonight.

I have so many chapbook manuscripts that it becomes hard to know which to submit. I've always delighted in assembling the chapbook manuscript. I've noticed that several of those chapbook manuscripts seem to be chapters in a series--which makes book-length assembly that much more easy.

But before there are manuscripts there are individual poems and the joys of a poem reading. I hope to see you tonight!