IWPS Day one

Alright!
So, I safely made it to Charlotte, NC. I guess you can say I'm kind of in "wired mode". I had a wonderful show last night at Wheaton College along with Mal and Corrina. Loved it, had a fabulous time. I absolutely LOVE gigs like that, especially when I don't have my band or my brother with me...

there's just something comforting about performing a show with other poets.

The audience was wonderful and grateful, and enthused and sooo willing to participate in group songs initiated which of course qualifies the Lyon's Den @ Wheaton as one of my favorite spots to jam. I was having such a great time hanging out with the stragglers...so between that and getting lost on the way home (somehow got kicked 40 miles off course!)
I didn't get home until close to midnight. Unpacked and mentally disorganized.

But it's all good...

3 hrs of sleep later, made it to the airport on time linked up with my traveling buddy Eric "soon to be rock star" Darby. Come to find after a chaotic phone call from my friend and Seattle poetess diva darling Christa, that the IWPS were close to checking me off as a no show. Thought that was strange until i showed up to registrations...Apparently in addition to the poets representing Slam Venues, there were a ton of poets trying to be selected on site as individuals.

Again it was all good, I made it on time, I've chosen my bid slot for competitions tonite. Turns out that I picked a number that set me on the same bill in arguably one of the toughest and possibly most attended bouts of the night.

Now yes, there are a hella of a large number of great poets out of the 72 poets here representing...but when I discovered who I was up against my first response was "AWWWWW MAAAAN"...

BUT 3 hrs later, I'm in Zen mode.
Again, really just happy to be here...HERE HERE. As in alive and breathing and loved and loving, grateful for the unorthodox send off by default at Wheaton.
Thankful for the conversation I had last night with Jen about life and how easily we forget to KEEP feeling grateful once we find a reason to. Words stick with me. Always have. I'm ready for more of that tonight. I have already transferred any anxiety I might have had into a little pocket of energy filled with FEELINGS OF GRATEFULNESS.

I decided a few months ago what this competition was going to be about for me.
Telling my story.
And hearing some of yours.
Somewhere along the way I forgot that. Reality has set in now. I'm here. And I know it sounds corny, but "winning" is buried deep down inside me as secondary...
a bonus...but certainly NOT a necessity.

I'll keep you posted.

Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
Charlotte, NC