First Reading in Public (the last Friday of September, 1981)

To sit, reading my words in public

always was at the back of my mind.

We were still strung like smoke

when the opportunity arose.

A moonless night and bottles of wine

accompanied us to rooms of long wood

where, sitting, seven people, including my self

three I didn't know.

"Go ahead, Jackie, I can't think just yet".

Paragraphs of words

written in anthologies

published at nine.

My God, I can't listen.

Instead, an effort to do a hard thing.

I forgot my words to better see the room.

Now, the trance, rolled into view

as spoken words painted a feeling.

She was doing it.

Sitting, seven people counting my self

three I didn’t know,

thinking, “thank you for saying what you are”.

Now me, moving to the chair

centering a room of seven strangers.

My ears plugged,

as off into words I can feel

not hearing what I said.

Realizing: Saying thoughts to strangers

touches them with my best-written moments.

Knowing, now, it's the ones who listen

that pass words to worlds of tomorrows.