Poetry Reading

My lovely friend Virginia hosted an evening of poetry reading and sipping tea last Saturday night. We dressed up, shared desserts and read aloud to one another (some quoted by heart) a wide variety of verse, reminding me how much I enjoy good poetry. One guest had been a literature major in college, and brought a nice stack of thick anthologies to browse through, so we continued to flip around and find more and more forgotten favorites.


Several people brought original verses they had composed for the occasion, including myself. Mine was a tongue in cheek limerick written in answer to a challenge from our friend Micah. I had mentioned the kind of poetry I'd written in college wasn't edifying -- more man-hating and obsessed with eating disorders. Micah suggested I write a poem contrasting my old mentality with my current happy state. I'm truly not a good poet, but these are the lines I dashed down:


There was a time when I nibbled on leafs
And glared at you all snarfing beefs
but now all that has changed
Josh my heart rearranged
So I guess you could say "love's a feast".

***Edit: Girls, you're quite mistaken if you imagine reading poetry to be a chiefly serious activity. Of course, there were occasions to ponder the words read, but for the most part, everybody read things that drew more than a few chuckles. Josh's original work "Deep Darkness", which was a satyr on the dread life of singlehood (clearly a JOKE) brought hearty guffaws, and I must say I got not only a standing ovation, but also a couple tee hees. One girl read this horridly hilarious poem called "The Lady's Dressing Room" by Jonathan Swift in which a devoted young man discovers, to his disgust, all the gross things his young lady does to beautify herself. We roared. So let me dispel any "refined" myths.