Last night after a full day of shooting a video
I was exhausted feeling low
as if nothing could help me.
I rushed to the venue at Elderberries.
Thank God I did because last night by the time I got
Home it planted new seeds within me.
Not only did I feel better but I was so inspired by the evening.
It restored my soul
it was alive and inspiring. A needed time.
an amazing array of voices and characters poems and prose.
It had a casual but vital energy about it.

Michael Camacho opened & closed with a wonderful lively set, and one of my friends said
he never saw anyone put so much feeling into “If I Only had a Brain” from
The Wizard of Oz, and all of his jazz standards with so much passion.

Lisa K. Thayer and her tireless effort…
She has devoted herself to this for love of sharing thoughts, poems
and language. I feel blessed to  know her.
She kicked the night off with her poetry. She delivers her poems
with sensuality and feeling.
She speaks with her body and she brings me in…
Each time I find other layers falling into me.
I love this poet who I have grown to call a friend.
You have to see her. Not only is she a poet but she brings an intensity
to The Juice Bar like none I have seen.
She does a great service to the world
and the language
bringing these treasure these tiny jewels to others
on a daily basis.
If someone thinks this is sentimental
that is tough… because she gives the street an urgency
the disenfranchised and she can kick ass.

Michael C Ford was next.
A seasoned and interesting poet with a voice that sends chills through me
and goes very deep with great wit and humor and sometimes a cynicism
that is so right on in today’s world.
Last night before writing and reading two incredible poems he read an excerpt from his novel that was so exceptional it reads like a poem.
His voice is  so astonishing. I tell him he could read a menu
and you would thing it is Shakespeare.
He is smart funny witty and takes no prisoner and no bull shit
comes out of these lips.
I love this guy. He gets to my core and I cannot turn away or deny
what he conjures up within me.
He is a choir within one soul
that really resonates with me
and calls me forth
to be extraordinary in the chaos.
He loves words and language and he is also producing with

Eve Brandstein, Rex Weiner
and John Densmore “Waiting For Jack” (Kerouac) another must see poetry event for everyone.

Next a new friend of mine who I have grown quite fond of Susan Hayden. I never heard her read her own work before.
This was a real treat for me.
To see this lovely being with great humility and presence
deliver her work
Her last two poems about the long Kiss and the one about boys without fathers
touched me very deeply.
powerful feelings
expressed in such a tender way
it broke down my resistance and it even reversed some of my
hostility and negativity last night and for a few moments I forgot that
I was not feeling well.
She  have a tender touching sweetness
about her
her verses and sent shivers through me.
I was so very moved.
I want to hear more of her work.
All these people penetrated into my defense mechanisms
I felt some of the tension leaving my bruised body.
I was calming down and no longer wanted to jump of a bridge.
I was released of my mesmerism of limitation.

Then came my dear friend Bill Duke
by the time he delivered “Men Like Me”
and finished the last cadenza as I recall it
You could hear a pin drop.
This is a fucking poem that will knock your shorts down
and rivet your very essence
it is not pretty and neat
it is rough on the  edges all more powerful because
he started it again because he could not find a page
and it rocked it gushed out like a stream
like a steam roller hit you
and Bill got into a rhythm that left me breathless
and speechless.
I was torn kissed and his crescendo was so exhilarating.
I felt as if I had lived through birth and death tragedy and renewal.
That one poem says it all.
I walked away from this evening with renewed strength
and gratitude to be alive and  even felt better.
These evenings are so great so inspiring so wonderful whether
two people come or 2 thousand
it does not matter .
Last night was a good show but the poems live on there own
and these poets even if they leave there poems
on the music stand.
The poems will jump off the stand
take on shape and burry themselves in your heart.
What a pleasure and honor to work with all these people
at the sweet little Elderberries.
I have performed around the world worked
with  many famous acts and I have to tell you
I have never had this much fun,
Everyone should go to Elderberries and experience these poets
They are my Rolling Stones my Pink Floyd and they all play
lead guitar and sing lead vocals.
Love
Stevie Kalinich
sjk

L. K. Thayer adds:

Theida Salazar got up impromtu and hypnotized the room with a personal

poem by memory that snake charmed us all. He is a magical wordsmith & performer

delivering electric beats with his exciting rythms and exquisite delivery.

Stevie Kalinich, who you’d never know wasn’t feeling well

captured the room in his butterfly net of poetry, with me holding his

book for him at one point (such a joy for me to be next to this powerhouse)

he is a master of heart, soul & compassion that literally

lifts you out of yourself and into his effervescent stream of consciousness.

He is a genius poet and a stunning performer you must see to believe.

Thank you to the full house that came to hear us at Elderberries

and to owner Dottie Zold, for her amazing food & hospitality & spirit.

Until next time, Cheers! 🙂

Stephen John Kalinich

L. K. Thayer’s Foto Fetish

© 2010