I read as part of the It's About Time poetry reading series tonight. It's been a long time since I read in public, like years. I enjoyed the process. I liked picking the poems, figuring out how they went together, blurbing them, practicing. . . And even with all that prep, things went differently than I anticipated.

For one thing, my poems about Lot were way more intense in a public forum. It might be the context. The other poets read about loving their grandchildren or reuniting with an old friend. I read about sleeping in shit piles, getting raped, and God betraying humanity. That was all one poem. Then I had the blues poems which came out a bit sexier in public than they had seemed at home. I have to say, the poem in a blues structure is really fun to read out loud. I need to write more poems that you can dance to.

I had several friends come who had never seen or heard my work before. I felt really honored that they had come. I noticed, actually, that four of the friends who came are artists themselves. Artists supporting artists, I like that.