Victory Palace's first open mic!

Dear Friends and Substackers,

Last night proved to be an amazing adventure and experience. It all started a couple of weeks ago when, as part of a mastermind group I’m in, I read my poem, “Imagination: the only Nation” to the group. This gave me the courage to go out into the world and speak my truth to real live people.

On the night of the reading, after coming home after work, Mrs. P asked me, “So, do you know what MOTW (the name of the coffeehouse we were going to) means?” “No, what?” “It means Muslims of the World…”

“Oh, really? I had no idea. Well this should be interesting…”

And it was!

I was lovingly accompanied by my wife (how lucky am I?), but also our best friends who eagerly wanted to attend to hear me read. I was so honored and touched that they wanted to go (you have no idea how touched I was).

Being a “red-pilled” poet, of course, I dressed for the occasion, specifically wearing a “red pill” shirt as appropriate branding.

And once we got to the coffeehouse, it was like being in another world, another culture. The readings were kicked off by a great poet Vareesha Khan

who read various poems from her book Motherlands which depicted the conflicting emotions and experiences of how to live life in American culture, while being tied to the memories and values of her native one.

Then it was my turn…

After my reading a couple of other poets rounded out the open mic with their words about what was going on in Gaza; these women, raising their voices the only way they could to call out the senseless sufferings of innocent men, women and children.

Then I got to hang out with Vareesha where we talked about each other’s work, and I even bought her book.

I was completely humbled and honored by all the people who gave me lovely compliments about my work and reading of it. It was truly a great unforeseen experience to go out into the world and meet people from other cultures and feel like we were all part of the same family, at least for that one night.

After saying good bye to our friends, we drove off, but not before getting another sign from the Universe, no less than from my favorite French poet Guillaume Apollinaire: it was a license plate that said ZONE, one of his epic poems about wandering through Paris with all its memories, longings, sadness and the totality of life hitting him all at once.

And then we drove back home, buoyed by all the good vibes meeting/interacting/reading poetry with people who I hope to see again.

The Victory Palace tour continues!

Yes, in honor of Poetry Month, I’ll be at the Coffee, Hip-Hop and Mental Health cafe on April 27th to try out my Imagination poem on that audience and see where that leads. I’ll update you accordingly on that experience.

Thank you so much and—if you celebrate Easter—have a wonderful one; and if not, have a wonderful weekend all the same.

With deepest gratitude,

VP