Fortune Cookie

A couple weeks ago I was having Chinese food down in Bakersfield and opened up my fortune cookie. It said that I was to receive a “great honor”. It's not that I put any store in what a cookie thinks, but I did try to think of anything that I might be in line for that could be considered an “honor”. And I came up with two. And they both came true.

First, I had submitted some poems to be considered to read at the Woody Guthrie poets event at the Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in July. I have since found out that I was selected to be one of about a dozen poets that are going to read in Okemah, Oklahoma, Woody's birthplace. Due to the number of poets and the musical accompaniment we each only get to read two poems, but still I'm thrilled to be able to read at the event.

The second “honor” was to have my short play “Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made Of” selected to be part of the Douglas Morrison Theatre Fourth Annual Cagematch. They are based up north in Hayward California. They have had these cagematches for the past few years as fund-raisers. This year they had 59 plays submitted and they selected five to present to the audience where audience members can buy a “token” to vote for their favorite play. By the time you read this I'll know how that turned out. While I doubt that I'll win, I'm honored to make it to the top five.

And finally some shameless promotion. Since poetry readings typically have places where the poets can sell books of their writing, and I was working on a chapbook (small book of poetry) anyway, I worked hard and learned several new things and got my book of poetry done. The title is drifter and is available at https://www.createspace.com/5480441 (when it asks for a password use drifter2015) and can also be found on Amazon. At some point copies will be available here in town too.

 So apparently the cookie was right. But what if those weren't the things the cookie was thinking about. What if there's something else in my future? But what could it be? I can't think of anything... Or do you think it could have meant...