Today, Sunday, at the 2011 WA Spring Poetry Festival, was another blast.
Today it was wall-to wall poetry at the Bodhi Tree Cafe and Bookstore, Mount Hawthorn.
We started the day with a Poets Breakfast. It was chilly, but the sun was making a grand effort to warm the west up. However, the coffee was hot and good - so that's the main thing. And it was 'fair trade', too.
Gary de Piazzi herded us poets into some kind of assembly, then compered, parading us one by one in front of the mike: Michelle Cahill, John Daniel, John Mateer, Geof Lemon, Jennifer Compton who graciously launched my new title QWERTY, and myself who responded ... Followed by AnnaMaria Weldon, and Janet Jackson who accompanied her poems on acoustic guitar and rounded it all off with a song.
The charming Karen and Elizabeth from Bodhi Tree Cafe kept things ticking along with their helpful staff - healthy organic foods and fair trade coffee plus freshly squeezed juices of all kinds. The breakfast poems covered a great variety of subjects, including breakfast memories on various continents! The Bodhi is a great place for Sunday breakfast, with or without poets chirping in your ear.
About 11.30am, the poetry crowd thinned out and the lunch crowd came in. They sat and ate without benefit of poems or literary gossip until they too departed and a new batch of poets and poetry listeners filled the cafe for the afternoon session - 1.30pm READINGS BY SUNLINE POETS. Organiser, poet, actress and charming lady, Vivienne Glance began by organising the chairs and microphone. The first four were Shane McCauley, Jennifer C, myself and Vivienne herself. I read from my Sunline publication, Whispering Gallery, and finished with a poem from QWERTY, seeing as it was its birthday.
A break - and another cup of coffee
The second half featured Roland Leach, founder, owner and editor of Sunline, plus AnnaMaria Weldon, and the newest Sunline poet, Mags Webster. When their readings had finished, Vivienne and Roland declared a small anthology of local poets was on its way - featuring Flora Smith, Chris Konrad and Rose van Son (who was unfortunately absent). With Viv reading for Rose, these poets read - and the day bubbled to a close.
So, that was a full day of poems such as a Poetry Festival should present, and tonight those with more energy than I are off somewhere else enjoying more and more poetry. I'm puffed out - I talked too much, but it is difficult to remain silent when you have such a wealth of poets and friends in the one space at the one time.
Tomorrow night, the Festival gig for Voicebox at Clancy's Fish Bar in Freo is sure to be another blast. I'll see you there!
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