My First “Public Appearance”

This evening I’ll put on my best dress, paint a smile on my face, and head downtown to Linnaea’s Café where, at 7 o’clock on the third Sunday of every month, they hold poetry readings, open to the public. I’ll put my name on the sign-up sheet and an hour or more later when it’s called, I’ll stand up at the front of the room and recite into the microphone, in the space of five minutes or less and in as steady a voice as I can muster, one or more of my so-called poems. I say so-called because while I feel confident that I’m a good writer, writing poetry doesn’t come naturally to me like it does to other people I know; I have to work hard to create a poem I consider “worthy.” But what the hell, huh? It’s all part of the “writer” experience, or so I hear… (read?)