Last night at the Worcester Magazine’s Best of Worcester party, I ran into a friend of mine, Alex, who I had not seen in a while. Alex and I went to St. John’s and Boston College together, and he was there for winning the Best Poetry Series.
Although he had invited me many times to the Dirty Gerund Poetry Show he co-hosts, my schedule at Hope Lodge usually has me working on Monday nights. Luckily I had someone covering me for the Worcester Mag Party, so I was able to go last night
So, after all the awards had been presented, my girlfriend and I headed to Ralph’s Diner for our first night of Dirty Gerund Poetry. We hung outside for a bit with Alex and the featured poet Marc, who had flown in from Baltimore for the show, and headed into Ralph’s.
Even though I had never been there, I felt really comfortable at this diner. I don’t know if it was the hamburger being grilled in front of me or the funky décor, I just felt like it wouldn’t be the last time I visited this place.
When the poetry started, I was really blown away. Even though I have published 4 books of poems myself, I had never been to a live poetry show. I figured the poetry would be different than what I had written, and I was right. All full of energy, most of the poets exploded with verses about sex, religion, and politics. The poetic vocalizations were full of emotion, funny at times, and captivated the audience. I think my favorite was titled “Election Night Sex”, an anti-Republican rant written about the 2008 presidential election.
Marc Marcel mastered the mic with his poems about how religion divides us, how money is meaningless, what he needs from a woman in bed, and how he disagrees with one of his friends about how to treat women. When he was sharing his verses and views on religion and money, I was all smiles and knew I would be emailing him my t-shirt blogs that shared the same opinion – this guy understands what is really important in life. I’m looking forward to his next visit to Mass.
The night concluded with a Superhero Haiku Game Show (What, you’ve never heard of one before?). Haikus were read that gave clues to different superheroes, and contestants “buzzed in” (hit a different body part of Alex’s co-host, Nick) as soon as they knew who the poem was about. With my girlfriend as my witness, I would have won and taken the $15 gift certificate to That’s E.
I don’t know when I’ll have enough confidence to be part of a Dirty Gerund show, but I definitely want to give it a try at some point. It was a great job by the Dirty Gerund hosts, bands, and poets last night. Easy to see why they won Best of Worcester. Looking forward to the next Monday night I can have off…
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