Traveling Around

Sometimes life takes curious twists and turns and the unexpected happens to amaze us. While on vacation, our GPS system told us to follow the most direct route from our beach location to our destination in Georgia. Because it involved driving through congested areas with potentially heavy traffic, we consulted our map and chose a different less heavily traveled route through some of the rural parts of South Carolina. ("Recalculating")

Because we took that route to Georgia, we were treated to scenery that we would otherwise have missed; some of it beautiful and pastoral, some of it a sad memory of prosperous times past, and some of it a hopeful expression for the future. I am happy we chose that less traveled route. It reminded me of Robert Frost's poem The Road Not Taken, and it reminded of other times when a simple decision, like choosing to share one's innermost thoughts with others, has made all the difference.

On July 9, twenty-three of the more than fifty people who attended the first-ever Poetry, Prose, and Pizza Open Mic Night calmed their jittery nerves and stepped up to the microphone to treat the rest of us to poetry, short stories, and even a comedy routine. Hosted by local poet and spoken word performer Nathan Richardson, (photo at left), the event was a fun-filled and thought-provoking evening. It was the perfect opportunity to meet and mingle, share our thoughts, and appreciate each other's works - with the added bonus of delicious pizza from Rita's Pizza. (A big thank you to Mr. Gayle Mayo of Rita's Pizza!)

Everyone who chose to read his work was warmly received and applauded. It was this decision of theirs - to step up to the microphone and share - that popped into my mind as I traveled through South Carolina. These brave poets who shared their work chose a more difficult and less traveled path that night. I hope it made all the difference in their lives and in the lives of those who listened to them. Some of the poets are pictured below. (Left to right below: Olivia Maguire, David King, LaQuisha Banks, and Phyllis Johnson)

Upcoming events and happenings in the local world of poetry are:

• Poetry, Prose, and Pizza Open Mic Night - Friday, October 15, 7:00 PM at Russell Memorial Library, 2808 Taylor Road, Chesapeake, VA 23321 (phone: 410-7016) See you there!


• Publication of Sleep in Me by Jon Pineda - Available for checkout through the Chesapeake Public Library and for sale at your local book store. Jon will be at Barnes & Noble in the Greenbrier area of Chesapeake, October 9, noon - 2:00 pm. For more information, see http://www.jonpineda.com/


• Publication of Skipping Stones: Chesapeake Bay Poets. Editor Pete Freas has compiled some of the best poetry of Hampton Roads in Skipping Stones. For more information, see http://www.chesbaypoets.org/ .


• For additional information from Nathan Richardson, see www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Nathan/Richardson


• Additional websites of interest to writers and poetry lovers include: http://www.jamesriverwriters.org/ , http://www.crwrwa.org/ , http://www.the-muse.org/ , and http://www.poetrysocietyofvirginia.org/ .

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

and sorry I could not travel both

and be one traveler, long I stood

and looked down one as far as I could

to where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

and having perhaps the better claim,

because it was grassy and wanted wear;

though as for that the passing there

had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

in leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

and that has made all the difference.

Come to Poetry, Prose, and Pizza Open Mic Night on October 15

and enjoy the difference your poetry can make.