
On Thursday 14 August, we had one hell of a good time at the monthly Poetry Night extravaganza hosted by Cleveland's incomparable Literary Cafe in historic Tremont.
Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know I'm late as hell in posting this blog (not sure, though, what hell has to do with being late, unless the wait was hell). Shoulda been an easy one to post, I guess, since the second featured reader, David Hassler, canceled at the last minute and didn't show up. His reasons? Essentially, he'd slept poorly all week and knew he would have important work to attend to the morning after the event.
Welcome to the club, Buddy!!!! ![]()
But we ended up not needing the Hassle after all.
The night's other scheduled feature, Michelle Krivanek (who won 1st place in Cleveland State University's 2008 Student Creative Writing Contest), drew a large crowd and kept us rapt with her poetic prowess. Even inspired me to buy her Gender Names for Moon (published by The Language Foundry).... Very nice!
Anyway, I am dreadfully behind on things I want (and have promised) to accomplish, so I will wrap this blog up here, knowing it doesn't give you a fucking clue as to how fucking cool the night was. (I find it hard to write about the Literary Cafe without saying "fuck" at least once.) If you really want to know how cool it was and is, you need to take your ass (and the rest of you) to Poetry Night at the Lit on the second Thursday of every month.
Or you can stay home and miss the fuck out. Your choice. ![]()
The F word has been used in this blog by permission of Nick Traenkner, the Lit emcee, who I believe has copyrighted it. Or maybe I dreamt that part. Not sure....
Here are a few photos (by me, except the one of me) taken that night:


Ray McNiece

Vertigo Xi'an Xavier

Nick Traenkner loosens up the crowd

Some of the folks eager to hear Krivanek

Michelle Krivanek

j.s. makkos photographs Krivanek while Miles Budimir and others listen intently

Krivanek emotes while performing Gender Names for Moon

Danilee Eichhorn during the night's open mic

Vertigo Xi'an Xavier and Ray McNiece

Open mic continues

I performed Low Kay Shun and Identity Crisis [photo by Geri]

Dianne Borsenik

j.s. makkos

Carmen Tracey and Steve Goldberg have front row seats

Rob Rozine

Dominique and friend dance to Polka music while Nick looks for a poem on his cell phone

C. Allen Rearick

Überhost Steve Goldberg shows his sensitive side

Eric Alleman at the mic


Here are a few updates, reminders, et cetera (all in one handy place).
* * *
If anyone would like to order a signed limited-edition copy of my newly released 14-page Bloggerel chapbook you may do so by sending a check or money order for five US dollars (which includes postage and handling) to John Burroughs; c/o Crisis Chronicles Press; 420 Cleveland Street; Elyria, Ohio 44035. I'll warn you: the poems included are already available on my blog. But as a book lover I generally prefer a hard copy in my hands to reading from a computer screen, and I'm sure many of my friends feel the same way.

* * *
Here's a message I posted on the Yahoo Clevelandpoetics list-serve:
Dear Clevelandpoetics friends,
I'm making new additions to the CrisisChronicles Online Library - and we're accepting submissions from living poets (with a slight emphasis on northern Ohioans).
http://library.crisischronicles.com
In the past few days, I've added to the site works by Arthur Rimbaud and Clevelanders d.a. levy, Langston Hughes, and Dianne Borsenik. [You can also find Whitman, Wilde, Byron, Malcolm X, Lao Tzu, Meribeth Hutto, Danilee Eichhorn, Edgar Allan Poe, Sarah Orne Jewett, Charles Baudelaire and others there.]
The CrisisChronicles online library is fairly new and still a work in progress, but I'm excited that it's already receiving hundreds of views a day. I will continue adding new works daily (as well as creating an index for the front page as time permits). Right now you can easily navigate around the library using the "category archives" box in the left sidebar.
Here's the permalink to the text of Cleveland legend d.a. levy's "PROSE: on poetry in the wholesale education & culture system" on the CrisisChronicles library site. You might recall that I already posted a video of me reading the piece here.
Peace, love and poetry,
JC
* * *
When Geri goes back to work tomorrow (Wednesday), I plan to work on my unfinished reviews of recent poetry events. Coming this week: video of the open mic highlights from Joe Sundae's on 3 August in Sandusky, video and pics from 8 August's Deep Cleveland reading in Strongsville (with Chris Franke & more), and a blog about Thursday's festivities at Tremont's Literary Cafe (featuring Michelle Krivanek and more).
* * *
Also, in case anyone's missed it, I was recently published by www.thecitypoetry.com. You can peruse the issue online, or purchase a print copy of issue 22 at the editor's cost here.
* * *
And one other thing: please don't forget my first-ever featured reading will be taking place this Saturday 23 August (8:00 p.m.) at Phoenix Coffee in South Euclid, Ohio. Split Pea/ce will also be featured. The event, including an open mic, is absolutely free and will be recorded and podcast on www.poetshaven.com. Come be a part of the fun. And if you can't, then please check out the podcast when it is available.


Bush Has Rice, Rice Has Bush






dan smith and Ben Gulyas [photo by JC]

Jim Lang [photo by JC]

J.E. Stanley [photo by JC]

Steve Thomas [photo by JC]

Dianne Borsenik [photo by JC]

Ben Gulyas [photo by JC]

Terry Provost listens intently while Christopher Franke reads behind him
[photo by JC]

The poetic blaze continues [photo by JC]

Gulyas shares a bit of flower power with Lang [photo by Dianne]

I read "Rapists" after debuting my anti-censorship poem "If You See Kay"
[photo by Dianne]

dan the man [photo by JC]

Still high on poetry after arriving home [photo by Geri]
* * * * *