Fishing the Snake with the Father and His Sons

From dennisbehm on Flickr

Last October my poem "Upon Hearing Elder B—— Bear Witness that 'Satan is Real' to a Mormon Congregation the Second Sunday of 2011" was published in Dayna Patterson's classy online poetry rag Psaltery & Lyre. It also appears in Field Notes on Language and Kinship. (I chatted with Dayna about Psaltery & Lyre here.) I've been meaning to post a reading of the poem since it was published and I've sat down a few times to record it, but it's long, breath-unit lines have stymied me such that, after many attempts, I got frustrated and walked away, intent on trying another day. With the Mormon Poetry Slam in full swing at FireinthePasture.org (come join the sound parade!), I thought this was as good a time as any to record and share the poem. So: after many, many more attempts and almost walking away again, I finally have a recording that I'm content enough with to share. (Read: I'll never get it perfect.)

Here it is. Happy listening.