I have been feeling a bit off recently. I have no idea what is happening, but I have been dealing with this. All this to say, I am writing this on Monday and don’t know where it’s going. I won’t get into it (it being my headspace) today because that’s not what we do on Fridays. On Fridays, we talk about writing. We sometimes talk about my writing. We will be doing that today. Welcome to Friday, by the way.

I was at an open mic last week. I was performing at said open mic. I wasn’t planning to. I was going to anyway to support Jack, who was asked to perform on the night. Unfortunately, Jack had to drop out at the last minute for reasons I won’t disclose, such as because it's not my place to do so. It‘s for a good reason, though. Long story short, I was asked to take his place.

I am slowly but surely getting the hang of these open mics. It’s something I want to get better at. I think I am on the right track. At this stage in my open mic “career,” I have noticed a few things. The main thing I have discovered recently is that repeating yourself repeatedly gets old quickly. It sounds funny, but I now understand how tedious live performance can be for musicians and bands. I knew I had to catch myself before I got discouraged from going to these events and doing the same things.

I thought of an ingenious idea to combat this: recite newer stuff. I know. I performed one poem on the night that I felt could be my next favourite if I ever learnt it by heart. I also performed a new poem called “Apple Greens,” which I was complimented on specifically, so thank you to that person. The poem I am talking about is a poem I won’t share the name of because of something I picked up from John Cooper Clarke. Yes, there is a point to this title. When he performs one of his most iconic poems, Twat, he prefaces it by saying the title is the last line of the poem. This poem is the same. I will share it at some point down the road. Today is not the day.

Watch John Cooper Clarke do his thing on YouTube or somewhere else. I have seen him live a few times now, and it never gets old. Thank you for reading. Thank you, also, for your time.