Two hours before the new issue of Listen & Be Heard Weekly is scheduled to be posted, (powered by WordPress open source software) I sit before my computer, having all else ready to go (being the copy editor/editor/programmer/co-publisher/publicist,) the remaining task for this week is to write this Letter from the Editor.
Really I’m none of the above. In essence I am a woman of words, a poet and a storyteller. I have come to these moments just before my forty fifth birthday, where I see a path behind me that continues around the bend before me, and know that I will always flow with the traffic of free expression, not always popular, but usually close to the Truth.
The Truth is that poetry and stories are at the heart of every love song, every riveting movie. The story of our lives is the story of what matters to us, the choices we make and live with. Like the choice I made to publish more than my own writing, to publicise more than my own activities, so that I could be a part of “Fulfilling the Promise of Diversity.”
Last week we got record traffic at Listen & Be Heard Weekly because everyone searching for Gabi Wilson on the internet, after her appearance on the Today Show on television, found my article about her and her appearances at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café. Not only web traffic, our phone started ringing with calls from people seeking her out, like the Ellen Degeneris Show, the Oakland Warriors (she’ll be singing at the game this Friday December 14), Discovery Kids and just this morning, a call to do a national televised children’s telethon in Germany. She’s a phenomenon now. Her story will be told for years to come as it unfolds.
No one is calling here to nationally televise a poem though. But I did get an e-mail from Brazil yesterday about “Living It,” letting me know that more than ten years after the original release, and despite the fact I’ve never made a dime off it, and it’s been released on several compilations without my prior knowledge, “Living It” is still living it. I was loving it before McDonalds made an ad campaign out of the phrase, and I’m still loving it. Loving what is real to me, loving my husband and children, giving free expression, having it to give, creating opportunities for people like Gabi who gave her first concert at Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café, and those who will follow searching out a stage and a chance to workshop what is dear to them. Taking moments and making magic, telling stories and hearing them told back, years later from people who I touched with words.
That’s why, without expectation of fame or fortune, without a book contract or a promise to televise, you can find me every Friday at 8pm on the stage of Listen & Be Heard Poetry Café, spitting poetry with the very capable CarlTrent backing me up on percussion. My personal date with the Word. And once a month, I stretch out with a yarn or two, too, the third Saturday of each month at 2:30pm, to be exact. Please join me sometime, and bring a poem or story of your own too.
Wishing you Peace and Poetry.
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