Valentine's Day Poetry Meet

In Monday's post I told you about my breakfast meet last Saturday with WCDR, a local writers' group. On Monday morning I got an e-mail from one of the members, Pat, who was referred to me by Lucy (someone else I spoke with at the meet). Gotta love networking huh? She had told him I write poetry and he asked if I'd like to come out to an informal Valentine's Day get-together held (as luck would have it) at "Debbie's", our favourite cafe in town. I told Sandy and she said she was definitely in. So we had an early Valentine's dinner (she made a really nice salmon with rice and veggies, no wine unfortunately since I was driving right afterwards) and off we went.

We got there a bit before 6:30. When we walked through the door I felt like I was stepping into some sort of Seattle coffee shop scene. Not that I've been anywhere near Seattle! A band was setting up with a young female vocalist and two guys on acoustic guitars. It turns out it was the same group, "Meagan, Chris and Tommy" that we saw at a local talent show last year...

They played their first set, covering songs by Adele, City and Colour and others. While they performed Sandy and I sipped our lattes ('cuz it's what you do at these things) and mingled. I met Bradley, who heads the Brooklyn Poetry Society...

 and talked with him about our writing and his books. Great guy, very encouraging and supportive. When the band was done Pat came up and began introducing the poets...

I read three of mine to everyone beginning with "Nightsong" which I had written for Sandy,

followed by "Timeless" and "Brooklyn". This was my first time reading my work to an audience and I felt more comfortable in front of a microphone than I ever have. It was certainly more relaxing than doing stand-up!...

(my eyes aren't actually closed, I'm just looking down!)

We were happy to see that our favourite server Sonya was working. We also met Racheal for the first time...

Racheal (left), Sonya (right)

as well as Debbie, the owner... 

We didn't know each other that well but we all got along amazingly and there was no shortage of hugs. Everyone was fantastic and we had a great night, I'm looking forward to something like this again!