A day of bicoastal poetry reading

Each year, Artists Embassy International and Natica and Richard Angilly's Poetic Dance Theater Company present the Dancing Poetry Festival in San Francisco. This year, like last, the event was not held at a live venue because of concerns about the Covid-19 virus. Instead, the grand prize winners' poems were danced, as always, and there were also interviews, and video presentations by other prize-winners. The entire presentation premiered yesterday on YouTube, in two acts.

I was fortunate to win one of the second prizes, and my video was featured during Act 1. I read a Shakespearean sonnet, originally published at Autumn Sky Poetry Daily. You can see me read at the 1:42:19 point of the video.

I was also invited to attend another virtual poetry reading yesterday, and I wanted to, but I couldn't fit it in because--in addition to watching part of the Dancing Poetry Festival, I also had to read at my local 100,000 Poets for Change event, which was held at the Women's Center for Healing & Transformation in Abita Springs, Louisiana. This year, the event was held outdoors because of Covid, and we were fortunate that the weather had finally cooled down.

We were also fortunate to have some live Mexican music and dance, and to have a special guest poet, Gabor G. Gyukics, the Beat Poet Laureate of Hungary. 

I read "Toxic, Redux" and a new poem, "Storm Debris." During a spontaneous second round--at the request of our coordinator/host, I read a couple of poems from my forthcoming chapbook, The Last Time I Saw You, a memoir of and tribute to my long-time friend, D. Eric Bookhardt, who died in November of 2019.