Back from lunch, a long table of poets at The Blue Moon Restaurant in the North Hills Shopping Center, I always look forward to their exquisite fried green tomatoes, I opted for the reading in the Regents Room.
Marc DiPaolo was the 1st reader, another transplant from New York, an Italian from Staten Island, that I am certainly familiar with from my single days in NYC. His work draws upon his youth but he included a piece titled “The Rose Withered in Concrete,” about a black student in his class when he was an adjunct at a New Jersey private college. Then a piece about being Italian in Oklahoma during COVID, “When I Had 5 Senses,” & the richly humorous “The Smallest Ass at the Family Reunion” from Fake Italian: An 83% True Autobiography with Pseudonyms and Some Tall Tales (Bordighera Press, 2021).
Sharon Edge Martin is a much-published Oklahoma writer who hosts a monthly poetry reading at Tidewater Winery in Drumright, OK. Her reading followed her own adage that “poetry has no boundaries” with poems on a variety of topics. “The Grandmothers Gather” was a response to the Russian attack on Mariopol, Ukraine; “How the World Works” was about poets v. politics; “Lucky Me” on being blessed with poetry & music, others. She included a segment from a biography in verse, “You Don’t Know Jack” about her husband’s father.
Britton Morgan is an active member of Oklahoma’s music & poetry community. Among the poems he read were a cluster from his handmade, mini chapbook (with poet Jessica Huntley who read later in the festival), Cross Timbers, “Trespassing,” “A Forged Oracle,” “Automatic Poem from Tarot,” & the title poem in the persona of a wolf. He also read what he described as the 1st poem he wrote, an essay titled “Harlan” about an ancient mound in the lake in Wagoner, OK where he lives.
I stayed in the Regents Room for the next session as well, of which the host was Cody Baggerly. I had noticed him earlier because he was wearing a kaffiyeh (I gave him a copy of the Veterans For Peace Peace & Planet News with its stories of the ongoing assault on Gaza).
Shaun Perkins is the founder/director of the Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry — who knew?! Her reading was focused on powerful women, witches from history & in myths & stories. In addition she not only encouraged us to cackle in response to her poems but got an enthusiastic audience response. Her poem “Mother Shipton” (1488 - 1561) was in the voice of the character herself. Others included “Hermione,” “Wicked Witch of the West,” & “Nasty Women” (the witches of MacBeth), & one about a male witch, “Listen to the Dead.”
Paul Austin has been a perennial reader at Scissortail, & is another transplant from NYC (& Boston). He has been an actor, director, and teacher for all his professional life in the theatre. One of the pieces he read was titled “How to Play Pinter’s Pauses & Silences.” But the killer performance was a piece with a long title I couldn’t catch that began “The Simple Riff…” which was profound in its simplicity, a cacophony of rationales, “Me, Me, Me” from all sides of the political spectrum delivered as only a master thespian could, or would dare.
The final reader was another ECU professor, Joshua Grasso, who writes speculative fiction stories. What he read this day was a strange, fascinating story titled “Doma Boy” about a house-hunting couple confronted with a property they love that comes with a house-spirit. What would you do?
Featured reading
After a break with a leisurely time for dinner, we gathered back at the Estep Auditorium for a reading by Kai Goggin, host of the Wednesday Night Poetry open mic in Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas. She was lavishly introduced by ECU professor Steve Benton.
Kai Goggin is the author of the just-published poetry collection, advanced copies were available for sale after the reading, Mother of Other Kingdoms (Harbor Editions, 2024). She began with a poem, “Priest of the Invisible,” inspired by a quote from Wallace Stevens. The on to a couple of morning poems, “Coming to a Poem” & “Petals.” There were many, descriptive, mediative poems about birds, each of which she tried to give the proper scientific name, even when they were torturously difficult, & a poem (“I’ve Been Feeding a Monster”) about a caterpillar. Love, even when not the direct topic, was very much in many of the poems, including those of the birds. Her poem on the common blue violet was for Sappho & titled “Lesbian Flower,” & she read a list poem titled “Things I Love About this Generation of Queer Kids.” It was a wonderfully affirming reading of lush poems filled with the beauties of, & affection for the natural world.
After a book-signing we all adjourned to one of Ada’s fine establishments, Polo’s Restaurant, for a relaxed reception of poets & writers once again enjoying food, drinks & conversation.
More of Scissortail to come.
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