After hearing for months from my friend Hilda about the monthly poetry reading at Village Books in Pacific Palisades I finally made it last night. I allowed myself plenty of time to make the drive down Pacific Coast Highway and up Temescal Canyon Road to the village center. Three of us (Hilda, our friend Barbara from the Nightbirds, and I) met at six for dinner and to catch up on our respective personal and poetry news, then we walked the two blocks in the crispy coastal air to Village Books. The place was packed, and that doesn’t take much in this diminutive bookstore. It’s one of those rare (I refuse to say "dying") breeds of locally-owned booksellers and with the cost of rents in a place like the Palisades they have to use every square inch to sell their books, which were stacked, piled, and shelved from top to bottom, wall to wall. There were about twenty chairs set up in the front facing the display window and we were advised to grab one now or risk standing.

The monthly readings are called the Moonday Poetry Readings and are co-hosted by Alice Pero and Lois P. Jones. Alice was the emcee for the evening and had us all seated and the first half-hour of open mic readings started right on time at 7:30. Both Hilda and I had signed on to read, along with about fifteen other local poets. Spirits were definitely cheerful and there was a warm and welcoming energy from the regulars, which helped the few newbies, such as myself, feel right at home. Each reader was given two minutes or two poems and the poems, for the most part were well written and well read. I went fourth in the line-up and read a new prose poem and a list poem I had written at Squaw Valley this summer. (To read and hear them scroll down to the next post.)

There is always a "feature" poet or poets, and this month it was a father/son duo, Willis (the father) and Tony Barnstone (Associate Professor at Whittier College). Tony went first and read from a variety of pieces: his translations of the Chinese poets from a soon-to-be-published manuscript and his own poems, both published and new. His presentation was lively, engaging and relaxed. He was good at keeping the audience from glazing over (as he put it) by varying the length of the poems and the subject matter. There were a few poems from one manuscript he is working on that were about WWII soldiers, relaying their own accounts of the events of that war and how they were changed by them. These were my favorite and I would love to have this volume when it comes out. For more information on Tony and to read a couple of his poems click HERE.

Willis Barnstone is a man who has been many, many places on this earth and has rubbed elbows with the likes of Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg, been published in some of the top journals and magazines in the country, as well as being fluent in Greekand French (he read one poem in each of these languages). He read poems some wonderful poems taking us all over the world and into some lyrical and often humorous places. It was truly inspiring to see a man of his age and stature so delighted to be reading to this small, but enthusiastically attentive group. For more on Willis Barnstone click HERE.

Following the feature reading there was another half-hour of open mic with some wonderful poems; one lady sang, one young man read his poems from his Blackberry (having forgotten to bring poems on paper) and the last gentleman (who came all the way from Westchester) played an exotic stringed instrument with two fret boards (is that what you call them?). I think he said it was a kind of dulcimer, but I could be completely wrong. At about 10:15  the evening wound down and then books were signed and sold. Myself, I was pretty tuckered out so headed on home having had a perfectly charming and surprisingly stimulating evening. As much as I love poetry I have found that even I can get too much of it and start to zone out after an hour or so. Not last night. It was good stuff and I’m definitely going to be frequenting the Monday night readings in the future and keep bringing my poems along. Next time I’ll bring my camera and get some shots to post, as well. If you’re in the area I highly recommend it. Click on MOONDAY to visit their site.