The other night I got a Facebook notification that my cousin Dominic had gone live. I tuned in and found him singing in his basement. He did this a few times at the start of the pandemic, when we were completely locked down. It was nice to tune into his one-man concerts and see my family all watching and supporting him. So I was very happy to see him again on Friday night, playing his guitar and singing and pretending he was at a bar somewhere, on stage with his friends. His band is called D. Hannon and Friends, and they’re a fun group to hear play. They remind me of all the nights I spent in bars in my youth listening to my friends Nick’s various bands. It’s a fun way to spend a Friday night, and you should check out their Facebook page.
Of course, I miss the outings of it all, the getting dressed up and going out and not being in my office on a Zoom call or Facebook live. But it makes me happy to see art amidst the chaos.
Another thing I am enjoying during this time is people sharing their poetry. I recently discovered a great podcast by a poet I like, and have been listening to her read her work and discuss the poems. And there is Poesia Live with Rachel Robles, which I know I have mentioned before, but is a Facebook Live show run by a very talented poet in my area. My poem “On Fire” won a contest on her show, and then went on to be published in the Buffalo News, which was a big day. I like watching her show because she has poets on who not only share their work and talk about their poetry, but also talk about topics of the day, and there’s a theme, sometimes. This month celebrates Puerto Rican women. Tune in Saturday if you are interested, or check out the page on Facebook.
I am also thinking of getting Kindle Unlimited, meaning that I will have a whole new world of books open to me. I want to read indie authors, particularly poets, particularly those released in the past year or so-we all kind of got shafted by Covid when it came to releases, and I hope to read and review as many as possible. I want to see the art you put in the world during this painful time.
Because it’s still possible. I’m over here penning a novel, for goodness sake. We’re still out there, we’re still creating. And the world still needs it, maybe more now than ever.
Ham 'N Eggs 