My first poetry reading

Last night, I went to Aqua Books to read some of my poetry in front of a live audience for the very first time. I was terrified, I was overwhelmed, and I was seriously considering backing out. But, I got up on stage and read my poem despite my trepidations. Now that the experience is over, I must say, it was awesome!

There’s nothing like listening to an audience respond positively to your writing. The poem that I read is called Florence, and there are parts of it that are supposed to be funny. I knew that I was taking a chance reading it, because there is always the possibility that an audience will have zero sense of humour, but it went over quite well. People laughed when they were supposed to, made “hmm” noises when they were supposed to, and listened silently when they were supposed to.

Initially, I thought that I would be terrified when I stood up at the podium. In actuality, I was quite calm. There was something natural about sharing my poetry with this particular audience, and I was even cracking jokes beforehand.

Of course, it helped that my entire family was in the audience.

Aqua Books has an open mic night every month, and anyone is free to walk in, get up on stage, and share his or her work. Each reader has four minutes, which is just about enough time for an introduction and a longer poem or shorter story. It goes by very fast, and before you know it, you’re sitting back in the audience listening to someone else.

We also heard from one of Aqua Books Writer’s-In-Residence last night. Her name is hannah_g (all lowercase, with an underscore) and she’s from Bristol, England. She read a few excerpts from the short story she is currently working on, and then she sang a few songs she had written to the accompaniment of a friend’s guitar. She was very talented, and the piece of her story that she read was very, very good. It was about Winnipeg in the 1920s, and everyone was laughing by the time she finished her set.

Aqua Books is just a cool venue in general. I absolutely love going there. The restaurant – Eat! Bistro – serves great food and beverages, and it’s located at the rear of the building. There are tons of used books everywhere, because it is a used bookstore, after all. And events – like the one I participated in last night – are held upstairs in one of two rooms.

The room that we were in is the larger of the two. It has an elevated stage at one end, with a desk, bookshelf, and old-fashioned stand-up radio. There is a bar (thank god) and kitchen at the opposite end. I think it can hold about a hundred and something people. Ah yes, and I forgot to mention the podium. I think Kelly Hughes stole it from a church’s pulpit.

Overall, my first live poetry reading went well. I think I did alright, and I plan to try again next month. Stay tuned!

If you’re interested in participating, send me an email or check out the Aqua Books website for more information.