Yesterday afternoon, I attended a book launch party for my poet friend Rachelle Escamilla’s Imaginary Animal at San Benito County Historical Park.  It was a beautiful country day, warm and breezy, with a glimpse of the historical past.  The food was amazing and the poetry was touching.  Rachelle is an inspiring poet who writes from the heart.  Imaginary Animal takes you through both her and her family’s memories of the country life, her journey as a poet and what it means to be Mexican.

I had the opportunity and pleasure of starting off the poetry program by reading a few of my poems from Whisperings.  I settled on Forever Creating, The Love of My Life and Absolute Freedom.  It was the first time I read Absolute Freedom out loud but it seemed like the perfect Hollister crowd for a motorcycle poem.  Here is a photo from the event.

Other featured poets of the day included Samuel Ramos and my creative writing professor from San Jose State University, Alan Soldofsky.

My next poetry reading will be a smaller, more intimate setting on Saturday, July 18th and will focus on musical poetry.