A story at the North Shore Readers & Writers Festival #poetry #spokenword #northshorereadersandwritersfest #grandmaraisartcolony

Poetry at the North Shore Readers & Writers Festival #poetry #spokenword #northshorereadersandwritersfest #grandmaraisartcolony #winter

Poetry at the North Shore Readers & Writers Festival #poetry #spokenword #northshorereadersandwritersfest #grandmaraisartcolony

Poetry at the North Shore Readers & Writers Festival #poetry #spokenword #northshorereadersandwritersfest #grandmaraisartcolony

Poetry and a Swedish folk song shared at the North SHore Readers & Writers Festival #poetry #spokenword #Swedish #folksong #northshorereadersandwritersfest #grandmaraisartcolony

I shared songs, poems, and a story at the Grand Marais Art Colony's 5th biennial North Shore Readers & Writers Fest. Jon på Lon (Swedish folk song) "Let's Say a Prayer" "Persephone's First Clean Breath" "No Happy Ending" "Tracks" "The Violet, the Peonies, the Death of an Old Woman, and the Cat" "Kråkedansen" (Swedish folk song)* *totally not a correct translation! (ha-- stage fumble). It means: we dance the crow's dance, the world is beneath us, no bird flies higher than the crow when she is singing."

When I'm learning a new story, such as this version of "The Horned Women," by Patrick Lawlor, the first step is to make sure I know all the basics. An easy way to check is to "Tell About" the story: verbally walk through what happens, questions I have, and, (as I discovered while recording this), what particular phrases, images, and feelings stand out to me after my initial read-through. This is pretty much always in present tense, similar to how we tell anything we're recalling (such as a camping trip). It's very much not a performance, and usually won't hold a listener's attention. The point is to move the story from words on a page (or what you remember hearing), to a series of images and feelings in your imagination. When I know a story like I know a place (e.g., the view of my cousins' farm across the road or a favorite hiking trail overlook, or my grandma's kitchen), I can tell the story whether or not I have command of elegant words or theatrical gestures. This is the foundation or skeleton onto which I can add those fun elements later to better transfer the feelings of the story to listeners. • The story I read on Substack is by Patrick Lawlor. you can read it here: https://open.substack.com/pub/brightvoid/p/a-scary-irish-folktale-the-horned?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2tdbv0

a #poem from the fire grate on my recent trip to the Boundary Waters. #bwca #boundarywaters #poetry #spokenword