Last week I did something that scared me. It still makes me nervous thinking about it and it has been making me nervous for many years. The thought of going to an open mic poetry night and performing one of my poems. I did it! No big deal you think. Ha! For someone who has forever been writing in a silent bubble of solitude and who still gets goosebumps of insecurity every time she posts a text on the blog she’s had for 10 years now… It’s big.
So of course I didn’t tell anyone. I went all by myself and put my name down after the encouragement of another poet who goes there every week. I was the last one to perform, and the only one who was reading a poem in English. Which was quite nice, not knowing if anyone was even going to understand what the hell I was about to say.
I gathered all my courage and stepped on that stage, read my poem and when I walked (ran) back to my table, the other poet said: wow, that was intense. So that’s it. My first poetry reading in public. For an audience I didn’t know and who maybe didn’t even speak English, but who still thought it was intense.
Valencia and the people here have definitely made the poet inside of me blossom. The support is insane! My friends just make my creative juices flow like lava. I didn’t write a single poem for six months, then I moved to Spain and met this special crew and this special man and now words just come out as poems.
In two weeks I’m going to Nowhere festival, the Spanish regional burn. It will be my debut as a poetry busker. No better place to write instant poems for people than in the heat of the desert wearing nothing but sequins. Psychedelic glitter desert poetry, anyone?
Don't forget you don't have to be roaming the desert for a delicious piece of poetry cake written just for you. I write commissioned poems for anyone! Slide in my DMs if that's something you'd like and I'll get my glitter on!
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