POETRY READINGS

POETRY READINGS

Poems performed by professional actors.

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POETRY READINGS
  • POETRY Reading: RISE, by Aysha E. Quiescence

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    One may pave the sided streets from his neighbors guile,
    To a diligence of a leader; or to an acid’s chyle.
    This zephyr from the switchgrass of soulstice,
    is unabridged by my mama’s veiled smile.
    One’s true veilon is dogged behind the child.
    Child who refused to fin...

  • POETRY Reading: On the Paradox of a Dying Child, by John Ellis

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    My light was out when the message bore
    the state of the child’s condition
    and brought me kneeling to the floor
    and reading what the father knew—
    the object as inviolable, though reason claimed we too
    would not cease in giving way
    when met by forces, I recalled
    my ow...

  • POETRY Reading: Grief in Numbers, by Wednesdae Reim Ifrach

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Number 1

    I watch him carry my mother up the stairs as if she is the thinnest piece of glass,

    She is full of cracks.

    I turn on the shower, a waterfall of memories.
    Rubber ducks in the tub as we pretended to be mermaids.

    My mother huddles in the shower, scared and...

  • POETRY Reading: Dark Elder, by Lance Mazmanian

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    (Sci-Fi for Rob Halford, Written While Sitting On a Curb
    Outside Steven Spielberg’s “Amblin’ Entertainment”
    Universal Backlot Office, Bungalow 477)

    Ravages of starlight
    beat upon his head:
    This battleground,
    a smoking field of dread.

    His body feels the pummel
    of w...

  • POETRY Reading: Uncle Ricky, by Dominique Carson

    https://youtu.be/9DQs3B_4y2g

    Performed by Val Cole

    POETRY:

    Uncle Ricky, a Gentle Giant
    Uncle Ricky, a brilliant soul
    He gave his near and dear a softer grace
    With his gap-toothed smile on his face
    His laugh filled a room as he told his vivid stories.
    A smooth swagger, a heart in bloom
    A brothe...

  • POETRY Reading: THE DOWNFALL OF GEORGE SANTOS, by Michael Noonan (interview)

    Get to know the poet:

    1) What is the theme of your poem?

    The theme of the poem is the comeuppance and downfall of a politician
    who literally lied his way into office and was then found out.

    2) What motivates you to write this poem?

    What prompted me to write it? I suppose it was to see how I...

  • POETRY Reading: Vitriol, by Scott Ruescher

    https://youtu.be/WhPQ84JWJTU

    POEM:

    In the sole required text for that Intro to Western Civ
    State-college course I took as a freshman, in the chapter
    On the 19th century Industrial Revolution in England,
    I saw farmhands by the dozens streaming up the street
    From a black iron gate, their agricul...

  • POETRY Reading: Towards The Storm, by Kewayne Wadley

    Get to know the poet:

    1) What is the theme of your poem?

    The theme of Towards The Storm is to move into uncertainty regardless of what change is to come. The only difference is choosing to face it

    2) What motivated you to write this poem?

    Most of my poems start with a feeli...

  • POETRY Reading: Their Moment, by Edward Palmer

    https://youtu.be/Z0B3ZEiOzbQ

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Their moment had come where the truth was told…
    From that point forward nothing was known.
    All that remained is the constant flow
    that stained their minds that had come to a close.
    Their minds bestowed only what is allowed.
    Allowed to b...

  • POETRY Reading: Roses In Traffic, by Kewayne Wadley

    https://youtu.be/Hy92-yHuykY

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Whether you pretend to see me,
    or you actually do
    eventually, eyes betray
    and look at what they really want.

    In an attempt to know myself,
    I know you.
    What it means to know beauty.
    To find a moment you hope lasts forever.
    A smile that ...

  • POETRY Read: Ecclesia Nativitatis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, by Thomas Koron

    https://youtu.be/pDqK9dK-BVg

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    (Church of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ)

    I.

    In a small Eastern European town,
    A painter swiftly walked on through the square
    Of the city, past old roofs colored brown.

    There was a metallic smell in the air,
    Caused by the rai...

  • POETRY Reading: Across, by Terry Jude Miller

    https://youtu.be/2mP0bDi5igA

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    A stag leaps across the board run,
    ditch to ditch, thorns to thorns,
    muscles, music, obsidian eyes focused
    to aspens beyond his landing.

    Those blessed to see such things once,
    and never again, carry the frames
    of that motion into the s...

  • POETRY Reading: A Match That Forgot How To Breathe, by Kewayne Wadley

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    I met her on a Tuesday.
    But it wasn’t an ordinary Tuesday.
    Sort of lukewarm, but heavy.
    One of those just get in the car,
    cut the music on and drive
    kind of Tuesdays.

    She was at the gas station,
    wearing Beats headphones.
    Not the discreet ones that fit
    in your ears,...

  • POETRY Reading: A Letter to Death, by Lina Kanan

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    I would let you eat me alive,
    Devour me whole, and
    Digest me completely.

    I would let you set me ablaze-
    Bright lights engulfing me;
    I’d burn to a crisp.

    You could carry me to sea,
    Drag me down, drown me,
    And I’d still thank you.

    You took her first,
    So far away…
    I...

  • POETRY Reading: Aunt / Aunt, by Robert Kinerk

    https://youtu.be/A2Yo6b6dKUM

    Performed by Val Cole.

    POEM:

    My beloved Great Aunt Ruth
    Fed her children good gray truth.
    Great Aunt Lisa, whom I prize,
    Raised her brood on bright red lies.

    Filthy cupboards, cockeyed doors,
    Spotted carpets, sticky floors,
    Rancid odors, saggy plaster. . .
    Lisa’s...

  • POETRY Reading: BLUE PEARL UNDER THE SEA by Ardalan Pourvali

    BLUE PEARL UNDER THE SEA
    by Ardalan Pourvali

    In twilights dusk, where coral reefs sway,
    an empress dwells beneath the waves gray.
    With tresses of hair, like golden seaweed,
    she reigns; a blue pearl - carefree.

    Searching the bayside;
    Nature Man hunts for lost treasure.
    Shuttered to t...

  • POETRY Reading: Choosing Love, by Hailey Summer

    https://youtu.be/EW45EGodRds

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    Slammed doors,
    raised voices,
    tears hitting the floor,
    she’s faced with choices.

    She sleeps alone
    for the first time
    in a long time
    with a heavy heart.

    Her own painful words echo in her head
    and guilt consumes her.
    What started the fig...

  • POETRY Reading: Erato’s Serenade, by Thomas Koron

    https://youtu.be/__hH3S-FfAw

    Performed by Val Cole

    POEM:

    I.

    Eros walked slowly through the forestland,
    Near Mount Olympus, in the soft twilight.
    By his side, he held his bow in his hand,
    As he walked on through the advancing night.
    Above the forest, the evening was clear,
    As a full moon lit ...

  • POETRY Reading: Jemimah, by Alex McCulloch

    Performed by Val Cole

  • POETRY Reading: Morning Star, by Hayley Kinsella

    Performed by Val Cole

  • POETRY Reading: The Tolling of the Bell Tower, by Thomas Koron

    Performed by Val Cole

  • POETRY Reading: Yoga Pants, by Mimi Whittaker

    Performed by Val Cole

    -----

    POEM:

    To the tune of Yesterday-With apologies to Paul McCartney

    Yoga pants
    I spend half my life in yoga pants
    don’t do yoga, I don’t even dance
    oh, I just live in yoga pants

    Wintertime
    cold outside but I don’t have to freeze
    Used to garden in my dungarees
    but yoga...

  • POETRY Reading: Reflection, by Sierra Fisher

    Performed by Val Cole

    ---
    POEM:

    Mirroring myself
    Only led to broken glass
    Pick up the pieces

    Stained with memories
    Jagged and rusted with tears
    Only truth remains

  • POETRY Reading: Lost Spring of Love, by Sheila Thadani

    Performed by Val Cole

    ---
    POEM:

    Is it better never to have loved at all
    Than to have loved and lost in sorrow’s pain,
    When love departs on flights to be enthralled
    With pleasures of youthful spring again.

    That temptation of Eros which beckons,
    To shed one’s age and cast love’s old clothes;
    An...