While I have been told I am an expressive reader, and that I am 'really a performance poet,' I think I entered the realm of Performance Poetry more completely than ever before last Thursday night.
A couple of stills from my feature at the fabulous and wicked The Beautiful and The Damned, a monthly poetry event in Toronto, currently at Q Space and hosted this month by Lizzie Violet. A great evening. Many talented, brilliant poets, and singers featured and on open mic. And really, I was totally scared to do this piece, masqued and all, but it went ok, and I didn't even flub the lines! Whew. Shhhh... don't tell anyone, but I had my eyes closed mostly throughout 'A Floral Opera' and so was able to recite my poem without the performance anxiety that usually makes me forget my hard-memorized lines.
Like I had 'ravishing light' memorized, but ran into the audience's eyes, and had to resort to the written version, and also with 'Palmistry, a Psalm,' same thing. At home on my own, I can recite from beginning to end without a hitch. So I guess I have performance anxiety. A friend suggested I wear a half mask for readings so I can keep my eyes closed without the audience knowing! Haha! No, I won't. Rather, I think I need to keep pushing my own envelope, keep trying, and eventually I'll break through to a comfort level where I can recite what I have worked so hard to memorize.
I worked on this one a bit in Photoshop for a potential profile photo (which I used on Facebook).
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