An hour before my book launch for Why Trees Stay Outside at A Great Good Place for Books, my friend and bookstore owner, Kathleen, called me to say their electricity had gone out. With record heat in the bay area, it was no surprise that the grid succumbed to heavy air-conditioning.
Kathleen said, “Let’s do it.”
Since my first two books came out during the pandemic, and she and I had reluctantly canceled those launches, we were determined to celebrate Why Trees Stay Outside. My conversation partner and good friend Susan was also game, so we gathered candles and camping lanterns and met at the store.
I perched outside in the gloaming light as a signal that the show would go on. Over a dozen of our stalwart friends came despite the dark block of stores, and we had a blast.
Reading by candlelight was a bit of a challenge, but the poems were familiar to me, of course. Susan asked some leading questions to get our conversation started. We squinted and joked with the audience participating like campers around a fire.
Someone requested that I read my poem “Lint”, which begins, “Once you believed in God….”
When I read that line, the lights came on!
We heard several supernatural interpretations of the event, any of which might be true. But I prefer to think of it as poetry power.
