Poetical

Tonight I scratched a couple of years itch, the first and last time I took part in a poetry night, which was fun, but during which I had to restart having blanked at my second line. After telling Fi that he shouldn't take one bad response to his fledgling stand up career to heart, I realised I needed to take some of my own advice.


Blind Poetics have regular monthly open mics, but of course the one I chose to apply for was their 5th Annual Big Night of the Spoken Word, so a long night, but a thoroughly enjoyable one (with my usual sidekick to my forays into random things I want to do, Ken, hopping along on his crutches). The pub was packed, and for the most part the poets really knew what they were doing, right down to plugging their own Fringe shows during their 5 minute slots. 


I got up in the middle section of the night, and even when I blanked a couple of times I was able to sort-of freestyle into a section I could remember perfectly, got laughs in the right places, and a frankly gratifyingly long round of applause at the end (before offering a bonus haiku in the time I had left that also got a laugh).


There were nerves beforehand, but it felt great up there, and afterwards had a few unsolicited congratulations, and one guy who co-hosts a poetry podcast asking if I'd like to record my piece for a future emission. Yeah, okay, this is turning into an ego trip.


Next open mic night is in October, and pretty much nailed on to get myself along and see if I can do it again. But for now it's almost 1, and the alarm will be going off in just under 6 hours.


Day 8
Target 180.8 miles
Actual 160.7 miles
Diff. -20.1 miles