Mark Richardson reads out some surreal verse as Amy Chavez and husband listen in the foreground

It’s not easy to draw crowds to poetry events, but WiK managed twenty plus customers last night packed into the Gnome for an evening of great variety. Each performer had five minutes to display their talents, and each took a very different approach to their five minutes of fame Thanks are due to all those who contributed to the overall success of the evening. This follows last year’s poetry and improv, showing we’re building a strong annual tradition of showcasing WiK poetry in June.

Thanks to Sydney Solis for demonstrating how performance poetry should be performed. Thanks to Preston Houser for demonstrating the shakuhachi way to enlightenment. Thanks to our intern Andrew Sokulis for daring to come up with spontaneous improvisation on a theme (takes guts to do that). Thanks to Ken Rodgers for not being a poet but spouting poetically. Thanks to James Woodham for his very original folk song rendition, thanks to Mayumi Kawaharada for haiku-ing in a foreign language, and thanks to Gary Tegler, narrator of Core Kyoto, for inspirational flights of pure sax fantasy. Thanks to Robert Yellin for unearthing his pre-pottery poetical self, and thanks to Mark Richardson for some serious stuck-in-the-elevator surrealism. Thanks too to special guests Amy and husband for making the effort to attend and for raffling off her new book, Best Behavior in Japan.

It was a fun evening, with many memorable moments. Let’s think what WiK poets can do next! (Photos thanks to R. Yellin, though possibly not the one of himself.)

John D reads from AJ Dickinson

Ken Rodgers takes the stage to read some of his own poetry and to advertise the forthcoming Kyoto Journal plus Chris Mosdell’s new book on Kyoto

Preston Houser with some witty Zen verse, interspersed with shakuhachi

Mayumi Kawaharada reads her seasonal cycle of haiku from Echoes: Writers in Kyoto Anthology 2017

Robert Yellin reveals he was a published poet before he was struck by the poetry of pottery and changed course

Gary Tegler blowing pure inspiration in his improvisation on the theme of Mayumi’s haiku

James Woodham reciting his own poem, before giving a rendition of it in original folksong

MC for the evening, Sydney Solis, made sure things moved along and entertained the audience with some fine poetry and a running gag of mispronunciations

WiK intern Andrew Sokulis came up with the first long spontaneous piece of improvised poetry that we’ve had. A revelation.

Amy Chavez conducts a lottery for her new book, helped by MC Sydney, with doorman and social secretary David Duff watching on in striking red