Long, long ago, I won a national poetry contest with the first poem I ever sent out into the world. The second poem was published in a journal earning me $25. After this, I secretly thought if I ever needed money I would write poetry.
I love the naïveté of my college self.
And yet.
Recently someone sent me a call for poetry submissions on the theme of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." It was less than 4 hours until the midnight deadline. Luckily, I know the poem mostly by heart. I instantly wrote an homage in Poe's scansion - an honest poem, centered in my honest current internal turmoil.
Wouldn't you know it got published in the anthology and I was invited to read it for the Poetry Downtown Train, organized by Dutch visual artist Erik van Loon... I did a public reading at the Poe Cottage in the Bronx on September 28th, 2024, and the next day took a train to Baltimore where I did a reading September 29th at Protean Books & Records in Federal Hill.
Enjoy the slideshow (below) and here's the link to the poetry anthology.
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