POETRY READINGS

POETRY READINGS

Poems performed by professional actors.

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POETRY READINGS
  • Poetry Reading: WIND UNWIND, by Kanude

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    “I’m so fucking broke it’s absurd,” Floyd noticed the tear inside his jacket pocket. There are miserable times and there are the best of miserable times. Weeks had gone by and his dog Sue had been eating from the hand that fed him, trolling along on a loose rope. An...

  • Poetry Reading: THE PEGASUS RANCH, by Arturo Desimone

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    The horses of Gaza—the stallions, colts, mares
    the donkeys too—and mules, and jennies
    who once tugged the people
    on their carts, across the streets and intersections
    for twenty centuries and maybe thirty,
    now they scramble, the neighs, the braying,
    the gallop in dru...

  • Poetry Reading: The Golden Toilet, by Susan Kay Anderson

    Performed by Val Cole

    https://youtu.be/2S9NpUs-x9E

    POEM:

    The Maga will deliver what is owed
    from a great hardware store
    a department, the section
    necessary fixtures and adhesives
    for the job, guaranteed to cement
    what’s so rickety, piles as they shift
    rise majestic, up to high heaven
    where Mag...

  • Poetry Reading: The Gardener, by ani martin

    https://youtu.be/0LufixXAwoA

    POEM:

    Summer arrives
    in a dazzle
    of pink blooms.

    The gardener admires
    my petals with his fingers.
    Reach for the sky!

    Seasons pass. Rivers slow. The gardener comes in shadow — a small flask
    of rain.

    A brutal cutting!
    Tendrils reach out for him, asking
    “Why?” as th...

  • Poetry Reading:The Final Fight, by Justin Prine

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    In the fading light of a weary day,
    A man stands firm, through shadows play,
    His heart a drum, steady and loud,
    Facing the storms, beneath the shroud.

    Each breath a battle, each step a test,
    He feels the weight of the world on his chest,
    Memories flash like sparks ...

  • Poetry Reading: Sun Shower, by Ryan Rahman

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    The sky opens,
    raindrops fall,
    and sunlight breaks the clouds,
    casting its glow
    throughout my backyard.

    An event, as if tailored for me—
    a dance of water and light.
    The universe is communicating
    through the space between.

    I am in tune with the
    presence of somethin...

  • Poetry Reading: She Climbed, by Michelle Murray

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    She climbed to the top of the mountain
    In her ascent
    She failed to see
    Red roses blooming, so fair, so sweet
    Grass green growing there
    Purple lilacs, stalks so bright
    Pink glowing sky
    Turning white clouds red by and by
    Blue fading into black
    Her steps show her track...

  • Poetry Reading: Circle of Death, by Robert Pegel

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    My mother is dead.
    My father is dead.
    My brother is dead.
    My other brother is dead.
    My sister is dead.
    My nephew is dead.
    My son is dead.
    When will my family stop dying?
    I’m never going to get used to it.

  • Poetry Reading: Beneath the Surface, by Christian Chu

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    1
    The cello stands in silence, holding
    Its breath.
    In one baton flick,
    everything changes.

    2
    In music, rests and notes possess equal power –
    Practice both. You’ll discover
    life’s balance.

    3
    Framed family photos hang,
    smiles obscuring the fights before the
    CLICK
    No...

  • Poetry Reading: chrysalis, by Virginia Elizabeth Samuel

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    back
    from the dead
    The Painted Ladies
    tremble
    in the heather
    the change has come
    as ephemeral Large Blues
    emerge
    from their buried
    chamber

  • Poetry Reading: Volcano Lover, by Walt Trask

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Capri is framed by the east window,
    Mount Vesuvius centers in the west. Chandeliers
    suspend high, trapeze artists erupting their crystal
    blooms to guide a Mardi Gras of painted clay and gesso
    far below ceiling

    vaults. Do you recall sunset velvet splayed across marb...

  • Poetry Reading: Twenty Good Years, by Richard Diamond

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    I turned fifty this year
    Which made me reflect
    That at best I have twenty
    Good years left before
    My life is basically over
    As seventy is pushing it
    For a man these days
    This of course assumes
    I don’t get hit by a bus tomorrow
    Or even later today
    Or have a heart atta...

  • Poetry Reading: the rose period, by Uma Jagwani

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    professor says,
    “picasso had a blue period, which was later followed by a rose period.
    people tend to associate the blue period with melancholic sentiments.
    & the rose period, with its opposite.”
    but professor, i sense lingering melancholy
    in his rose period, too.

    ...

  • Poetry Reading: The Burden of My Name, by Michelle Wittle

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Little girl. You’ve carried
    the burden of my name
    my life, interrupted
    by a car crash at my
    own hands for longer
    then you even knew me
    on earth.

    It’s time you lay down the burden
    of my name, my life, my
    goals that exceeded expectations
    because you have surpassed
    an...

  • Poetry Reading:Pain Away, by Shadeara Hall

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    I smoke to take the pain away
    Hoping for better days
    That I don’t have to stress
    And just be blessed
    What God blew my way

    I run to take the pain away
    Running just clears my brain away
    Away of any negative thoughts
    That I may have running through my mind at the time...

  • Poetry Reading: Deep Breaths, by Rachel Baker

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Shadows
    (they move)

    Deep breaths
    (can’t breathe)

    Darkness swirls
    (like the madness in my mind)

    Deep breaths
    (can’t breathe)

    Name 5 things
    (but it doesn’t go away)

    Deep breaths
    (can’t breathe)

    Tree branches caress the window
    (or scratching fingers)

    Deep breath...

  • Poetry Reading: Away We Go, by Zionna Edwards

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    I wanna go home
    As the dusk rises
    With the sun bending down
    And thus, staying there
    Until it begins to rise again.

    In your car
    With the windows down
    Does light shine dim
    And bright shading the
    galaxy, the sky.

    Racing down the street
    Goes the gas smell and
    the steam...

  • Poetry Reading: The Joshua Tree of Mojave, by Lalit Kumar

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Dry, arid, desert landscape of Mojave
    spartan-like, feisty under the relentless sun,
    austere rock outcrops, shrubs,
    wildflowers under the clear blue sky,
    bloom vividly upon a thousand stars in the cover of the night.
    A solid trunk of a tree, a poetry
    unfurls its bra...

  • Poetry Reading: Poetic Justice, Jonathan Goldman

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    T’was my last caper, a risky but weighty score:
    Safe dial whirred, door popped at speed,
    No chance to focus, time to take a shot,
    In n’ out in minutes, so why’d I get caught?

    Cops cuff’d me, then questioned me, but I didn’t break,
    The files stashed, they couldn’t c...

  • Poetry Reading: My Final Arrow, by Cameron Crawford

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Pain and grief,
    Sadness and sorrow
    Will I have the strength to make the morrow?

    I fear my loss
    Will forever emboss.
    Can I shed this pain, no matter the cost?

    Rage and anger
    Are no stranger,
    Especially towards the one born in the manger.

    You watch your world burn
    ...

  • Poetry Reading: RACE, by Paula Maria Rodriguez

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    I was, maybe, three
    years old, when my mother
    said: “I challenge you to run
    from here to the corner.”

    And, delighted, I ran.

    On my spring stick new legs,
    I ran,
    giving it my all,
    I ran,
    alongside the old stone building,

    While holding my mother’s hand
    and I felt t...

  • Poetry Reading: X Marks the Spot, by Lucinda Clark

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    The Countdown begins
    When?
    November 5th, Jan.6th
    OR
    Is it
    When does the countdown end?
    I have heard one question and one statement over and over
    Are you better off
    We will fix it
    I hear words like
    I am traumatized
    I am wondering I am leaving
    I am scared
    That is not...

  • Poetry Reading: Revenge Theology with Hands, by Sharmila Voorakkara

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    When I die, I’m coming back to haunt the shit out of everyone who ever screwed me over in this lifetime.And I will be immune to your puny exorcisms. And if you’re on my afterlife shit list and you happen to get yourself dead before me, don’t consider yourself off th...

  • Poetry Reading: My Body Isn’t a Protest, by Nickie DeSardo

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    My body isn’t a protest.
    It’s a betrayal.

    I’ve been trapped in here for years,
    buried inside a harp seal,
    wide-eyed with hakapiks overhead.
    It was silent when I wanted to scream.
    It froze when I wanted to fight.
    It stayed when I should have fled.
    My body isn’t a pr...