OPEN MIC Vol. 1 – FEATURING the poetry of JESSIE CARTY, VICTOR KONDRATAS, & VAL B. RUSSELL
by Bryan Borland
I posted the following review of Jessie Carty‘s book Paper House on Amazon:
“Discovering your parents aren’t perfect is the childhood equivalent to losing one’s religion – yet Jessie Carty handles such a realization with a profound grace laced with (somehow) maintained innocence in this brilliant first book from a poet who might best be described as the Princess of Tides. Written from the perspective of a young woman, but with such a universal voice that I, as a gay man, can recall my own coming of age, Paper House is like reading the diary of a survivor from childhood through early adulthood. If Judy Blume and Pat Conroy had a lovechild, this is the collection of poetry she’d create.”
If you need more reasons to discover Jessie Carty, well, here are three:
Mixed Drinks by Jessie Carty from PAPER HOUSE
Saturday at Merchant Mill Pond by Jessie Carty from PAPER HOUSE
While We Were Unattended by Jessie Carty from PAPER HOUSE
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I also wanted to share with you a couple of poems by friends which are personal favorites:
doppelganger by Vic Kondratas (for the original click here)
Add Vice by Val B. Russell (for the original click here)
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Dear Readers (and Dear Listeners),
Please recognize that I sat sweltering in my Honda Civic in the parking lot of a Vietnamese restaurant for you in order to capture these recordings. That’s how much I love you. I sacrifice. Please also recognize that for my entire life, through about an hour ago, I thought the word was doppeldanger with a second ‘d.’ Therefore I will never pronounce it the correct way. What the hell is a doppelganger? It sounds like some freaky porn film. To console myself, I’ll take comfort in the fact that MedicatedLady pronounces herb with an audible ‘h.’
Loverboy and I are going to Jazzfest this weekend. A seven-hour drive Friday and Sunday nights with some alcohol consumption in between. When in New Orleans…
I am beyond thrilled and honored about this! I love that you picked pieces that I haven’t even read as often at readings and such. Equally funny is how I was just thinking this week of starting to do some audio files for my website as well. I love love love this internet family of mine. A million *hugs*
I want this to become a regular feature on my blog, and your poems, along with Val’s and Vic’s, were the perfect debut!
[...] Two reviews are now up on Amazon! Bryan Borland’s review also appears on his website where he also presents audio recordings of several of my poems. Awesome! [...]
Bryan, you read Jessie’s poems with perfect force and emotion. Mixed drinks and While we were unattended always bring tears to my eyes. Paper House is an incredible collection of emotion and reflection and you’ve given it an incredible review!
Vic’s Poem, doppleganger captured the ball and chain we all carry within and without. Your reading was superb.
Thank you Bryan, for reading Add vice and making it live with your breath and cadence. You understood the words so well and every word you stressed was exactly as I heard it when I wrote it. HUGS
I’m hoping to have a specific call for this for Referential later but I’d really love to see writers who respond to a specific piece on referential do audio or video recordings of the pieces. After hearing Bryan, I love that even more!
Did you notice I sang the words “West End Girls?”
~
yes my heart was a fluttering! i so LOVE the Pet Shop Boys
It was my pleasure, Val.
No greater love can be shown than sitting in “the parking lot of a Vietnamese restaurant” while enduring the heat of a Honda…I am blessed to have you…but more for the wonderful words you cast upon the page.
Thank you for acknowledging my sacrifice!
You do great read Borland. ‘Doppledanger’ ha,ha,ha,ha. We’ve all got a doppleganger. How did you insert the audio (I’ve been trying to insert an audio directly into wordpress but can’t quite seem to do it)?
FIrst, you have to buy the space upgrade. Then you upload the file into your media library. Then, you just type, with the brackets:
[audio http://www...the web address of the media file you uploaded]
Thanks Bryan – it’s all in the brackets.
Cool, go Jessie! I voted for you in Poet Laureate of the Bloggosphere by the way. ‘Herb’ is pronounced with an audible ‘h’ everywhere except where you are, Bryan. Bloody Americans,
Thanks Paul! I have no chance of winning and I think a comment I made on their fueled some ugliness about who gets paid and who doesn’t and who deserves to “win” etc.
MedicatedLady has always fancied herself as European or Australian anyway.
Hearing you read her work was wonderful. I will be careful what I say, but in a way, as you read, it was almost like a poetry lesson. Since I have seen a few of these in rough draft form on her site, and to here her finished piece is enlightening!
Love the other two as well…doppledanger sounds like a definition for double cursing- shit shit damnit!
Thanks Chef! Did your KY Party go off as planned? That’s KENTUCKY (Derby) not the personal lubricant!
Mmmm… this is wonderful. I love the audio recordins. Reading a poem and reading a poem out loud are entirely different. Even better is to have someone read it to you. It gives you a whole new perspective and gives a different life to the poem. Thanks, Bryan! Have fun at Jazzfest.
Thanks Tel. Jazzfest was fun, though spirits were a heavy from the oil spill that was hovering just off the coast. I’m sick about it.
Excellent readings, Bryan. It is always good to hear poetry read aloud. Sometimes we live in our heads and among the words so much we forget how things sound when others are reading. Nice job.
I am so elated that my humble words were read by the likes of Bryan Borland! Bry, your reading was perfect and a true honor for me to have. Thank you very much! You blew life into the deflated shadow figure.
And you taught me that I’ve been mispronouncing and misspelling a word for several decades. Thanks for that.
[...] audio. You haven’t seen much audio from me but maybe I’ll copy Bryan more and make some audio files? I know I’d LOVE to have people submit readings for Referential Magazine. Looking for people [...]
thank you for weltering Bryan (and teaching me this new excellent word) and the wonderful voices.