Cafe Muse Hosts Thought-Provoking Poetry by Shara Lessley and Joseph Ross

Friendship Heights Village Center hosted Shara Lessley and Joseph Ross for Word Works' monthly Cafe Muse poetry reading on Monday, October 7th. It always strikes me that Cafe Muse feels like a retreat from the outside world into an environment of calm meaningfulness as we listen to words written and spoken in new ways.

The evening began with the always soothing musical talent of Michael Davis, accompanied by the gracious Richard Grayson (Paul Grayson's son).

The first featured poet of the night was Shara Lessley. Her poetry spanned from the everyday to her experiences in Jordan to what it felt like to return to the States after being gone for three years. It was easy to picture what she was describing in her poetry; we took a piece of her journey with us on hearing her descriptions.

The second featured poet was Joseph Ross. His work depicted important historical events such as Rosa Parks refusing to give up her bus seat and the bombing of a New Orleans church that killed 32 people, as well as the story of a graffiti artist. After each poem Joseph read, it seemed that everyone in the audience raised their eyebrows and sighed audibly in response to the intensity of his words and passion.

After the readings by our featured poets, several others read. One person who read, the remarkable Paul Grayson, had just celebrated his 95th birthday! We celebrated with him, enjoying pumpkin cake made by Lois McBride in his honor.

     

 Thanks so much to our featured readers and the others who read! We appreciated another haven of poetry. Be sure to come out for our November Cafe Muse event on Monday, November 4th at 7:00 PM to hear poetry by Hailey Leithauser and Chad Davidson!