A Perfect Day

Some days are so perfect I can't help keep reliving them in my mind. The day began with poet Robert Fanning reading from his new collection American Prophet. Wait it started much earlier than that. It started with coffee and hot chocolate with my daughter at the Ugly Mug Cafe in Ypsilanti, my new favorite cafe, which is nice and close to home. Just last week, I spent a couple hours there on Saturday morning working on a short story at a table sitting against a wall lined with books while I sipped on the best coffee I've ever had. What more inspiring place can there be to get some writing done? But this isn't about last week. It's about yesterday.

Yesterday, at the Ugly Mug, my daughter and I ate bagels and talked about life and about our plans to attend the Writers Reading at Sweetwaters special reading featuring Robert Fanning at the Ann Arbor Public Library later in the evening. We talked about how my daughter might get the opportunity to sing a song she wrote during the open mic portion of the evening following Robert's reading and about how I would most certainly read a poem as well. She was nervous. While I've read many times before, she's never read anything she's written in front of anyone.

We spent a couple hours at the cafe, went and picked some things up at the store and went home to gather out things for the reading. When we arrived at the library we were welcomed by Chris and Esther, the wonderful women who run the Writers Reading at Sweetwaters series, the most welcoming and warm reading around. They welcomed us warmly as they always do and were eager to sign both of us up to read. 

If we'd only gone to hear Robert Fanning read, it would have been a spactacular enough evening. His new collection follows the journeys of a modern day prophet as he tries to pass his message to any who will listen. What Fanning can unearth as his prophet scans the aisles of a super store for a megaphone or seeks a moment with a king at an Ypsilanti Elvisfest transcends the ordinary to become something subtle and beautiful all at once. He pulls us into the familiar and leads us beyond. I'm eager to spend a quiet evening on my deck with the entire collection, and I'm definitely adding the poem "The Prophet at Elvisfest" to my list of favorites or as I call them "talismen" poems.

Following Robert's wonderful read, we had our chance to read our own pieces. Chris Lord made a lot of the fact that my daughter was going to sing, which was so sweet. I read, then she sang. She was a hit. Robert even signed his book to my daughter, telling her she has the voice of an angel. She left the reading on cloud nine. More importantly, she was given a huge nudge toward an appreciation for language and writing. She came home and has been writing more songs since our wonderful evening ended. I can't imaging a better way to kick-start poetry month than to see a spark lit under my own kid.