On June 30th, 2013, the Morris book shop so graciously hosted an event to honor the participants in Lexington, KY’s first annual Lexington Poetry Month. Preceding this event was a talk and reading with poet laureate Frank X Walker as well as a signing of his new book.

The following photos were taken by Bernie DeVille.

We also had a total of 29 poets approach the microphone to read a poem. I took the liberty to record that night’s events. Click any name to see their LPM 2013 registration page (with bio and reason they signed up) as well the poem they read in its entirety.

• Bianca Spriggs, “Witness”
• Bernie DeVille, “Collecting Blank Notebooks”
• Julian DeVille, (I missed the title. I apologize)
• Jason McKinley Williams, “Morning Run, Arboretum”
• Maggie Brewer, “Southern Severence”
• Michelle Knickerbocker, “Native Take-over of the Branches”
  • At this point, Frank X Walker finishes signing books and comes over to listen
• Karen George, “What to Do During a Summer Rain”
  • After Karen’s poem, Hap drew a name out of a fish tank to win a t-shirt. The winner was Melva Sue Priddy!
• Jennifer Beckett, “L’Engle’s mirror”
• Marianne Worthington, “That Obligatory Dog Poem Everyone Warns You Not to Write”
• Douglas Self, “Flat Footed”
• Pauletta Hansel, “My Grandmother Speaks from Beyond”
• Hap Houlihan, “With Poetry”
• Whitney Collins, “Soul Mates”
• Bronson O’Quinn, (refused to read a poem)
• Kari Burchfield, “There are no fireflies in Idaho”
• Kristine Nowak, “Dreams”
• Katerina Stoykova-Klemer, “How God Punishes”
• Robin LaMer Rahija, “How to Avoid Second Person Point of Way”
• Zachary Johnson, “Closing time and materials” (?)
• Jude Lally, “First and Last”
  • After Jude’s poem, Katerina calls up Patrick Maloney to draw another name for a free book. He ends up drawing his own name!
• Nettie Farris, “Body Fluids”
• Pam Gibbs, “Insurgence”
• Morgan Adams, “Beneficial Exercises for Heart Disturbances”
• Elane Moore-Turenne, “One With God Is A Majority”
• Matthew Haughton, “Looking for Joseph Barrett”
• Patrick Maloney, “The Edges Of What I Wanted”
• David Laurenvil, (not registered, but allowed to read prose poem)
• Kevin Blankenship, “When Superman Stops Flying”
• Leigh Anne Hornfeldt, “In Its Entire Life a Bee Will Only Make One Teaspoon of Honey”
• Teneice Durrant Delgado, “On going home”
  • For the final drawing, Hap pulls Robin LaMer Rahija for a Morris gift certificate!

You’ve already heard it plenty, but we can’t thank you guys enough for participating and supporting Lexington Poetry Month. As Hap Houlihan said when introducing the events, after a few years this celebration will seem “like a very small, relatively modest gathering”. We had over 40 people attending a reading of almost 30 poets. 80 Lexingtonians signed up and submitted over 1,000 poems.

Thank you.