Recordings
of two poems
Both of these poems were inspired by moments in San Francisco. “Poetry Reading” is about the first poetry reading I attended in San Francisco in August 1991. When I came across a photograph of a fog-covered downtown street a couple of years ago, I remembered that evening and began this poem.
“Between Market and Mission” was also inspired by a walk in San Francisco on a rainy afternoon in 2007 when I stopped for coffee on Market St. before heading to a meeting with a client.
Poetry Reading
In my memory of that gray evening
I’m alone, sounds smothered
by the fog descending over
downtown’s skyscrapers.
I climb the steep streets
in a jean jacket
that offers no warmth.
I have never felt so cold.
I am twenty-seven,
have just moved from Texas
for a new life in California.
And there I am in San Francisco,
climbing toward a church
where poets read their poetry
where there are so many people
crowded inside I stand pressed
with my back against the wall,
amazed I have found a place
where poems are prayers
“Poetry Reading” was first published in LAdige Review, California Poets, Part 8, January 8, 2025.
Published in A Moment Like None Other: Marin Poetry Center Anthology 2024–2025.
Between Market and Mission
At the café on Market, a woman
in her friend’s arms, a sadness I
recognize—by the way her body
weeps—as feeling endless.
Coffee in hand, I step wide to
avoid the puddle formed from
three days of rain still falling. I walk
one block, my umbrella unfurled.
On my shoulders, I carry my life
and my work. At Mission, a man on a bike
crosses with the traffic as I wait
for the light to change. He smiles and I forget
my usual caution and smile too. He turns
around then, rides up to pause beside me.
“I want to tell you three things,” he says.
“One, you’re really cute. Two, your
shoe’s untied; and three, have a good weekend.”
On a Friday afternoon, even on this
flat expanse of one city block, I walk
an edge between grief and possibility.
“Between Market and Mission,” was first published in Electica, July/August 2008 and later in Eclectica Magazine Best Poetry, 2016.
Photo Credits for both images on this page:
Jr Korpa on Unsplash