Tonight I am on stage at the habitat centre in an amphitheatre beneath the stars. It is a good venue in Delhi. The audience iss electric or electrified and JeetThayli who was on stage for about thirty minutes is brilliant. He’s an astounding poet on stage and with music. He looks like a poet. I enjoyed myself on stage and had no books due selling them out in Bangalore. The gig went down a storm. The whole evening had an electricity, a power surge.
The reception afterwards reflected that energy and it sort of made me want to live here. The reading was hip angry sad funny intelligent and down right stupid. Damn near perfect. In some ways I wish life just had poets artists and their audience at a gig cause a great gig is when the gap between audience and stage become invisible. A great gig is when the poem becomes itself.
When I see a poet on stage I want to be moved in some way. Wether it is moved to laughter or moved to tears – I want to be moved. Otherwise it’s all too safe, too predictable and too slick. I go back to the Park on a high knowing why I do what I do and why I am what I am.