Spoken moving to twice a week

We have been convinced. Spoken will now be held twice a month. Our next reading will be on Sept. 13th when we will announce how we will work the second reading in. Most likely we will run Spoken on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month, but don't take my word on that just yet.

I have my worries about this. Trust me I would like to do a reading every week, I could probably be convinved to do one every other day. The problem is that when I think of Spoken, I picture the last two readings. The turn out has been great and the number of readers we have had has been even better. However, I have been to several readings that are run weekly and the crowds are always smaller and the lists are always shorter. You can put off going to a reading that is once a week, it is much harder to do so when it is once a month. Not that you can't get good numbers at a weekly reading or that weekly readings don't work. I attended one the other night and it certainly didn't make me run from the room and curse poetry. For me, I almost enjoy looking forward to the read as much as the reading itself. I like the time to work on something new. I like the challenge of getting a bigger crowd to engage the poem and for me to find a poem to engage them with. Just my two cents though.

Anyway. Sept 13th. Broadway Pub. If you need directions or more info drop a comment here and drop us an email. Hope to see you all there.

Last nights reading

Personally, I thought things were rather slow to start of the evening. I can't really put my finger on what it was, but it just seemed to lack energy. However, after the break things took off. There was some great stuff through the night, but those of you that read during the second half of the reading....a tip of my hat to ya.

However, there is some bad news. It was bound to happen sooner or later. We broke something. Actually, who did the actually breaking is unknow, but it happened on our watch. A free beer to anybody who writes the best poem dedicated to our broken toilet seat.

Look for pictures from the reading soon and thanks to all the poets and listeners that made it out.

Spoken #2

Hard to believe that we are this close to our next poetry reading. However, we are more than ready and judging from the success of our first reading it should be another great time. I won't hit you up with too much of a sales pitch, other than post a couple of pictures from our first reading at Broadway Pub. In the future I am going to look into putting some sound onto the site so not only can people see what they have been missing but hear it as well.

Spoken #2
Broadway Pub
August 9th
Sign-ups @ 8:00pm

If you would like more info, drop us a line at Spoken!

Some pictures from our last reading....

Tuesday!

Only a couple of days until Spoken and from the sounds of things, it is going to be huge.

I can't help but get excited. Most of my favorite poets are not the guys and gals being published or the poets that I was taught in high school and college. Most of my favorite poets are bar poets made up of the old group from Speak Easy. Steve writing poems about a penis and Cory writing poems about a pack of smokes. If you don't know the two poems I just mentioned, you are in for a treat. While I can't help but get excited, this is also the point where I start to get nervous. What if people don't show up? What if we don't have any readers? What if nobody likes us? In a way I feel kinda like the new kid in school having a birthday party who doesn't think anybody will show up.

Hope to see all of you there, feel free to come up and say hi or ask me to stop sending emails.

Tuesday July 12th Broadway Pub, look for us to start at 8:30

To give you a quick poetry fix.

At the Poetry Reading- John Brehm

I can't keep my eyes off the poet's
wife's legs—they're so much more
beautiful than anything he might
be saying, though I'm no longer
in a position really to judge,
having stopped listening some time ago.
He's from the Iowa Writers Workshop
and can therefore get along fine
without my attention. He started in
reading poems about his childhood—
barns, cornsnakes, gradeschool, flowers,
that sort of stuff—the loss of
innocence he keeps talking about
between poems, which I can relate to,
especially under these circumstances.
Now he's on to science, a poem
about hydrogen, I think, he's trying
to imagine himself turning into hydrogen.
Maybe he'll succeed. I'm imagining
myself sliding up his wife's fluid,
rhythmic, lusciously curved, black-
stockinged legs, imagining them arched
around my shoulders, wrapped around my back.
My God, why doesn't he write poems about her!
He will, no doubt, once she leaves him,
leaves him for another poet, perhaps,
the observant, uninnocent one, who knows
a poem when it sits down in a room with him.

Less Than A Month

Thought I would share some of the work we are doing to drum up interest. We are going to be working on t-shirts tonight. If I can get a picture of them I will post them tomorrow.

As usual, if you would like more info drop us a line at Spoken

A Reminder

Spoken Poetry Reading
Broadway Pub
Tuesday July 12
Sign-ups 8:30
Readings start at 9:30

I read at the Endzone's Open Mic night last night. Had a damn good time. It has been awhile since I have gotten to read to somebody other than myself. I was just as nervous as always, then once I got going, wished I had more stuff. Always seems to work that way.

Found this on Poetry Daily this morning by Stephen Dunn.

The Kiss

She pressed her lips to mind.
— A typo

How many years I must have yearned
for someone's lips against mind.
Pheromones, newly born, were floating
between us. There was hardly any air.

She kissed me again, reaching that place
that sends messages to toes and fingertips,
then all the way to something like home.
Some music was playing on its own.

Nothing like a woman who knows
to kiss the right thing at the right time,
then kisses the things she's missed.
How had I ever settled for less?

I was thinking this is intelligence,
this is the wisest tongue
since the Oracle got into a Greek's ear,
speaking sense. It's the Good,

defining itself. I was out of my mind.
She was in. We married as soon as we could.

We're Back!

If you miss the old Speak Easy poetry readings at Limey Louie’s or just plain missed them, mark July 12th on your calendar now. Speak Easy is back.......well sorta.

Things you should know......

1. We changed the name of our poetry readings. Instead of Speak Easy we will be going by ‘Spoken’. There are several reasons for this. We won’t bore you with all of them, but simply state that the name changes is not a slam on Speak Easy or the people that made it what it was. What it is, is an acknowledgment that things are different. ‘Things’, aren’t better or worse...they just are.

2. We are no longer able to hold our readings at Limey Louie’s. Instead we will be holding them at Broadway Pub in Granville. We have been looking for a place to start-up the readings for awhile now and think that we have stumbled onto a place that will become a home for us as much as Louie’s was.

3. While the name and location has changed, one thing hasn’t. Spoken will only be as successful as those who participate; in organizing, in reading or in coming down for a damned good night of poetry. Spread the word. If you know of anybody who likes to write or read poetry let them know about us. If you know somebody who might need a gentle nudge or who wants to be included on our mailing list, drop us a line at spoken.poetry@gmail.com.


That’s about it. If you have any questions, comments or concerns post them here or send us an email. We will get in touch with you as soon as we can.

A somewhat quick note on this blog.

This will be Spoken’s official blog. If you need to know when the next reading is or some contact info, check here. However, this blog will not be only about Spoken. It will be a complete and total mixture of stuff. We will certainly cover poetry and poets, but other forms of literature are certainly fair game and movies and music and wine and.....you get the point.

We have a section started for links that we would recommend, if you know of one that should be included, post a comment or send us an email. If you read a good book recently, saw a great concert, had a great bottle of wine, or anything else....drop us a line. Let us know and we will let others know. Just as we try and create a sense of community at our poetry readings, we would like to do the same here as well. Like our poetry readings, this is mainly up to you.

We hope to see you all on July 12th. Come early and enjoy a few drinks. Readings will start at 9pm unless you hear otherwise.

It’s good to be back.

PS- Pardon the typos.

To help tide you over until July 12th

The Quiet World by Jeffrey McDaniel

In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
and also to appease the mutes,
the government has decided
to allot each person exactly a hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.

When the phone rings, I put it to my ear
without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.

Late at night, I call my long distance lover,
proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.

When she doesn't respond,
I know she's used up all her words,
so I slowly whisper I love you
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.