A video about the opening

There is a video HERE, please follow the link.

.

(for those of you only wish to see me, check at 1:13. I am standing in the far left with an orange scarf. And also at 1:20 again and at 1:33, too. I guess it is not much of a pain to watch between 1:13 and 1:37)

.

The paintings are cool and some of my favourites are shown from 2:10.

.

As for the recital.

I had three poems to read and I almost learned them by heart. At the peace of my empty home, when no one was around I was able to recite them almost completely. Like... I had to check one or two times.

I learned to play with the words in order to convey the message or let the words shine more. Or more obviously.

At the event however, I was a bit nervous.

There were so many people around. There was a microphone.

I looked more than two times into my papers, but the feedbacks and congratulations indicate that I was able to recite loudly, clearly and to the audience (not onto my paper). My husband said that I seemed to have immersed myself into the poems somehow and that my reading was lively.

.

I really tried to do my best :)

An update on the paintings

For details, see the post just below this one.

But it turned out that I will not read my poem only, but two other small poems as well.

.

Oh my.

It seems that the leader of our writers' group was so impressed by my reading at the "Garage Sale" event (see some posts below) that she wanted me to read aloud my poem and two others as well.

.

These two poems, written by a fellow member in the writers' group are kind of simple at first sight and funny in a certain way. They contain some play on the words, but all in one, they are a bit depressive

They have words like 'nuclear apocalipse' and 'Geiger Mueller meter' and 'scafander' and 'irreversible'.

.

In a sense I am lucky, though. The event will take in the Community House of Arts of our town and I am familiar with that building. This is where I go to every week for our choir rehearsal. The opening ceremony will take place in the big hall and this is where the photos will be on display, too.

Last time we finished our choir session I stayed a bit longer in the building until no one was there in the hall and tried to say some of the complicated words aloud.

It felt weird, yet I knew I was doing the right thing.

.

I never would have guessed I would be thrilled with this kind of acting. If anyone asked me like 10 years ago like hey, how about reciting three poems at a public event, I would have freaked out at the very idea. Now I see it as if I had another tool at my hands to explore the world.

.

I have no idea how it will turn out.

Garage sale ~ a public reading

Public readings in our writers' group are usually quite cozy. It's mostly just us, members of the group, one or two relatives and random passers by.

But not this time.

I stopped counting the number of participants at 50.

And unlike in the past, we did not just read our stuff while sitting comfortably in our chair.

No.

This time there was a definite speaker's stand with a microphone.

Oh.

The one who read had to work his/her way in to the front of everyone and read standing by the wooden stand and speak to the microphone while facing the audience.

Oh. My. Stage. Fright.

But I survived!

And managed to get some words of honest appreciation, too.

Here how it worked.

The theme this time was "Garage sale". Eleven members of the group had one item. These items were made into a list. The task was to write anything in your style and plot of preference. There was a word count limit and you had to incorporate your item plus at least 4 other items from the list.

All the items were displayed for the audience to see the whole time.

My item was a pair of rubber boots. Other items included a perfume bottle, a set of poker cards in a box; a weaving loom,  a diary, a painted Maria with Jesus and so on.

I recall a short surrealistic poem about the contents of a room; a mysterious short story about a weeping Maria in a Greek hotel; a funny short piece about a Soviet spy during WW II; and a dramatic piece that involved the recalling and erasing of memories while developing photographs in a dark room. There were 20 readings.

.

My piece was about an elderly couple. At the beginning the man chops wood kindlers for the stove, but the lady calls him inside and dislikes his cutting the wood in those rubber boots. She insists that chopping firewood in those boots is silly, for the small waste falls into the boots making the job uncomfortable. The argument turns into a heated one. At the end the man sets the set of poker cards flying into the air by kicking the box. Finally he returns to chopping, to his axe and keeps wearing the boots and lets the small wate fall into the boots.

.

With this short story I kind of looked into our future with my husband :) I wanted to write about arguing. Write an unpleasant conversation. Or something unsettling. Because this is what I usually DON'T write about. I sort of stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote about interaction between partners. I voiced their negative feelings towards each other. I also wanted to show their frustration. At the end of the day though, I don't think these two truly dislike one another.

.

One commenter asked me whether I spied on some elderly neighbours. She found my characters so alive that she said I must have eavesdropped some of their conversation.

Another commenter said that my piece was among the best reads this evening and she was able to imagine a complete novel around this couple.

More than one commenter said that part of the success of my story came from the way I presented it.

Well, I did rehearse it like 2 or two times, but I thought I was uneasy with the microphone, with speaking behind  a formal speaker's stand. Wow. A success :) I mean I thought the story was among my better ones, but getting praised for presentation? That surprised me :)