An Evening of Louisiana Poetry

Last night, I presented "An Evening of Louisiana Poetry" at the Women's Center for Healing & Transformation in Abita Springs, Louisiana. I read from my two latest chapbooks, The Last Time I Saw You (Finishing Line Press, 2022) a memoir of/tribute to the late photographer and art critic, D. Eric Bookhardt, and The Wild Parrots of Marigny (Querencia Press, 2022), a collection of poems about New Orleans and Louisiana.

Joining me were poets Orisia Haas and Dennis Formento, and there was also an open mic. The last time that we had an open mic at the Women's Center, a woman took out her guitar and sang a hilarious song that she had written about the pandemic. Last night, there was another unexpected moment: A woman read "prayer poems" that had been texted to her by a very young friend who was trying to attain legal immigrant status in Canada.

We had some spare time after the open mic session, so I read a couple of poems that are tangentially about Louisiana--their focal point is the Tchefuncte River--but are actually about the songs on Taylor Swift's album, Folklore, and the memories and emotions evoked by those songs.