Below are some of the instructional poems I read at the Sacred Grounds cafe open mic night last night, my first public reading of them in easily 20 years. It is a cozy, hippie-esque place up by Busch Gardens in north Tampa, nice free library, very relaxed "livingroom feel", inhabited by an eclectic mix of interesting-looking young people, some pierced and colored, or long haired, or punked out, plus us "old hippies". I was a little nervous, and noticed the paper jiggling in my hand as I read my poems into the microphone, but I got such a positive response from the audience who had been listening to excellent local musicians, that I was reminded that in the 80s and 90s people told me that I HAD to publish a book of them. They were a prime creative focus for me just before and during the early years of my self-published gardening magazine THE GARDEN DOCTOR, which I featured them in now and then. Almost 57 now, I relish looking back and, with 20/20 hindsight, realizing anew just how heady and intense my 30s were, especially after I moved to Denver.
My multi-talented Tampa friend Mary Jo is going to help me look into creating an e-book of them to get them out in the world while, hopefully, providing a new source of income I could surely use.
Enjoy, John
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