Day 3 of Dodge

Sorry for that short break. Real life took over. Now back to the photos!

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So Saturday, I woke up and discovered that I had lost my voice. I mean I completely lost my voice and couldn't let out anything above a hoarse whisper. I decided to sleep in a bit. I had a morning panel and a afternoon reading. I decided not to push myself beyond that because I was slated to read in the big opera house at 7PM.

Talk about living out a public speaking fear . . .  there's the dream that you go to speak and you're naked in front of everyone. There's the dream where you've forgotten your notes. And there's the dream where you lose your voice.

Needless to say, I spent the whole morning drinking tea with lemon and honey and eating hot soup. All in all, the voice lasted. I tried to hold back on the panels a bit, for fear of really losing my voice.

Anyway, here are the photos:

In the morning, I bumped into my good friends, Joseph and Aimee.

Aimee took this picture of me. That podium was the same podium used for all of the Dodge Poetry Festivals since 88. Nobel Laureates have used that podium. Wow. I was so nervous, too. I could hear people to my right, though, and as it turns out one of those people was Sharon Olds (apparently she was letting out poetry moans which makes me so happy).

Blurry Rachel Hadas.

Kwame Dawes who had threatened the audience with a strip show.

Sharon Olds! As I mentioned earlier, the first books of poetry that I owned--Kinnell's New and Selected and Olds's The Gold Cell. She read beautifully.

From left to right, Michael on the left, Aimee, and Matthew on the right.

The very sweet Marlena Morling.

Michael Dickman. You could hear the spaces in his reading, which was eye/ear opening.

Dorrianne Laux knows all about the moon.

Martin Espada reading/chanting with the backing of a band. An incredible performance!

After, we had Tapas at a restaurant which served the food from 3PM to "till." Whatever THAT means.

Matthew, Santee, Tyehimba, David, January, Jennifer, Joseph, Aimee, and myself crowd the table. That's my cell phone's glowing face.

One of two highlights from the evening--Matthew making me a Hot Toddy. The other highlight was getting a hug and a kiss from Sharon Olds after my reading.