One of those moments
You know when you're sat socialising with a few friends, and you begin to make a joke about something awful that happened to you a long time ago, way back in a time before you were a fully fledged adult and knew any better, but for some reason it comes out a bit wrong and you can see from their lack of laughter, concerned expressions and awkward fidgeting that perhaps they think it isn't a joke after all, so you try to back-pedal out of what you're saying, but in the process stammer and muddle your words up a bit and make the whole situation seem even worse?
Well, it was like that for me yesterday evening. Except I managed to do it in front of an audience of about forty people at the Poetry Cafe. Not the first time it's ever happened to me - poetry and spoken word audiences do have a tendency to assume you're being very literal about your "pain" - but it never gets any easier to deal with. Still, at least I now know that one of the few workable new pieces I've written in the last few months needs a much better-thought through verbal introduction at events, because I'm not bloody putting myself through that again.
Well, it was like that for me yesterday evening. Except I managed to do it in front of an audience of about forty people at the Poetry Cafe. Not the first time it's ever happened to me - poetry and spoken word audiences do have a tendency to assume you're being very literal about your "pain" - but it never gets any easier to deal with. Still, at least I now know that one of the few workable new pieces I've written in the last few months needs a much better-thought through verbal introduction at events, because I'm not bloody putting myself through that again.