Open Mic at Words Matter Bookstore
Here I am, reading one of my poems for the first time in public. Well, sort of in public. It was in a public building, the Words Matter Bookstore in Pitman, New Jersey. However, the two ladies you see hanging on my every word are my sisters. Probably half the "public" in the bookstore that night were family. I'm still counting it as a public reading, though.
I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be. I hadn't fully memorized my work, which forced me to hold paper printouts of each poem. Even though I had printed them in a large font, I had visions of my hands shaking so badly that the words (I'm told Words Matter, you know) would become a blur. But for some reason, I didn't shake. My guess is I would have shaken badly, though, if I'd seen the title of the book in the foreground of this photo (taken by my niece, Sara—the photo, not the book).