July 22: Greetings from Curtis, Poetry Reading, Magic 8 Ball Monday

Greetings from Chamberlin's Ole Forest Inn in Curtis, Michigan.  I had lunch a couple of hours ago, and now I'm sitting in my room, blogging remotely.  I've already picked out the poems I'm going to read tonight, practiced them, and made myself sufficiently nervous.  Now, I simply have time to sit back, relax, and meditate on standing in front of a roomful of people tonight who might not really like poetry.

I am the only poet on the docket this evening.  The other poet had to back out at the last minute due to a family medical emergency.  As I chose my poems for this evening, I tried to keep my audience in mind.  I want to sell books, so I chose work that was challenging but not too difficult.  I don't want to offend anybody.  I want the citizens of Curtis to like me.

After the reading, I'm going down to the bar and ordering a drink.  That will be my celebration.  Well, that and the $400 in books I'm going to sell.  Yeah, right.

My question for the great book of Salinger is no surprise:

Will I read well tonight at the Erickson Center?

And Holden's answer is:

"Hey, I don't need all this," I said.  "Just give me two bucks, is all.  No kidding--Here."  I tried to give it back to her, but she wouldn't take it.

That's Phoebe being generous with Holden.  That means the audience at the Erickson Center are going to be kind and generous, too.

Saint Marty likes kind and generous poetry lovers.

Me and a friend at the Erickson Center

July 21: Daughter at Camp, Trip Tomorrow, New Cartoon

Well, I'm beat, and it's late.

I dropped my daughter off at a church camp on a beautiful lake this afternoon.  She's going to be gone for a week.  Strange, I'm so used to having her around.  When she's gone, there's a huge hole in the house.  Even my four-year-old son senses it.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going on a trip to Curtis, Michigan.  I'm reading with a couple other really fine writers in the evening at the Erickson Center.  I'm a little anxious about it.  I haven't really done a poetry reading for almost a year.  I hope I sell a couple of books.  Five would be great.  Anything above five would be a miracle.  That would pay for the entire little adventure.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be posting tomorrow.  It depends on whether my hotel has WiFi or not.

If it doesn't, the next missive you receive from Saint Marty will be on Wednesday.

Confessions of Saint Marty