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<\/a>Christophver R. \u2014that\u2019s his legal full name, as he likes to show in his passport \u2014 founded Poetry Party and Garden Theatre Festival in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are happy to have anyone and everyone who is interested in poetry come and read their own work or the work of other poets. We have poets of every level here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He introduced Tim Evans as the first poet to read for the open mic. Evans\u2019 poetry was about the frustrations and fears of a poet and artist, and the beauty of it, too. The last line of his final poem, \u201cmisplaced the moon,\u201d stirred an audible murmur of appreciation throughout the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust as I like to say, caution: Poetry may be inspirational to your life,\u201d Christophver R. said.<\/p>\n
Rudy G., short for Rudolfo Gonzalez, with long wavy black hair and sporting a fedora, read poems of what life was like as an artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I exist to you, I am an inner city miracle,\u201d he read from one of his poems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t be a \u2018we\u2019 without you,\u201d Rudy G. said. \u201cFor me, poetry is not a private matter. I bring vigor back to poetry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reg E Gaines, a renowned performance poet, entertained the audience with the recital of his impassioned poems. His reading style was a hybrid of rap and blues.<\/p>\n
Many of the poets are also artists, like Randi Hawkins, who exhibits her mixed media paintings at a studio in Spanish Village. She had spent the entire day at the park, first at the studio, then at the regular Poetry Party from 3 to 5 p.m., then sharing more poems at the open mic. She had also brought some cheese and crackers for refreshments.<\/p>\n The first poem she read was titled \u201cCivil War Villanelle,\u201d a homage about her great-great-grandfather who was a Union soldier killed by Confederates.<\/p>\n Hawkins explained that a villanelle is a type of structured poem with five stanzas of three lines each, and six stanzas of four lines each, with two main rhyming couplets.<\/p>\n In her \u201cCivil War Villanelle,\u201d Hawkins borrowed a line from Walt Whitman\u2019s poem, using the words, \u201cOh Captain, My Captain.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawkins read another one of her own poems, \u201cLiving Stone,\u201d which she set to the tune of \u201cWandering Stranger.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a poem from my pagan self, hearkening to the Celtic tradition,\u201d said Hawkins, who has been with Poetry Party for four years.<\/p>\n Everyone applauded Diane Hardy after she read her poem. \u201cWe must endure, we must,\u201d she said, and then smiled big at finishing.<\/p>\n \u201cShe did endure. She did indeed,\u201d Christophver R. said, giving her a thumbs-up.<\/p>\n Throughout the evening, the poets took turns reading. Their poems touched on every subject imaginable, even about how technology has encroached on the time that artists and poets have to work.<\/p>\n After the open mic, Christophver R. invited poets who had been published in the San Diego Poetry Annual, which was on sale at the event, to give readings.<\/p>\n Published poet Jim Moreno read his \u201cPolitics and Polarities,\u201d a poem about the widening disparities in social status between the rich and the poor, the business world and the artist.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s our revolutionary poet, an activist,\u201d Christophver R. said.<\/p>\n<\/a>