( L - R )Sage, Gina Rey Forrest - File photos

The 2009 season of month-end poetry at Redbones, The Blues Café, at Braemar Avenue, New Kingston, opened with a new look last Wednesday evening.

Not only were the poets seated at tables and high chairs on the stage, but a singer/guitarist was put into the mix with poets Gina Rey Forest, Sage and Mo'Scherrie, who performed in that order.

Strong poems

After the candles on the tables were lit, Forest was first off the poets' high perch to take her stance at the lectern, beginning with a poem about herself as the poet ("You look at me as if you know me," she began), continuing with pieces that mainly dabbled in sexual matters. So 'Single Pillow' was about a woman waiting for her lover, 'Litany of Longing' asked "could I taste those lips?" and 'Puss For Sale' dealt with matters of cash for gash ("sometimes puss get sick, but still look all right").

'F It' led the listeners down a sensuous path, Rey grinning as she revealed in the end that what she had advised "inhale the fragrance as you kiss it" was actually her hair.

Sage, accompanied by Stephen Jackson on acoustic guitar, started with a poem based on the effect of Tropical Storm Gustav on his community, closing with "Shango is risen". He followed that with 'Call and Response', taking off his jacket to get more into performance mode as he mused "real people do real things".

"I often watch old people carrying skyscrapers between their shoulders and just holding it," Sage said in a piece which advised "ladies, diamonds are not the only things that last forever". After the poem was finished, he said that a session with the Sage is often a session with thoughts you don't want to come face to face with.

He closed with a poem about Barack Obama becoming United States president, asking at one point, "is this history, is this prophecy?"

Jason Raphael added song to the poetry, playing his electric guitar and singing to "get what you're after" and, in the second song, the advice "we can work it out".

Slight closing

Mo'Scherrie closed the evening, her head often canted at a slight angle and a knowing smile on her face. She opened with a poem about poetry, putting images to the imagery. 'Spotlight' was inspired by a bout of television watching, Mo'Scherrie asking "can somebody take my picture". She closed with a round of smiling and posing, concluding "thanks for the picture, now can I continue living my life obliviously?".

Mo'Scherrie went into the sensual as well, with 'Black Coffee' and 'Putrid Sexy' and in 'My Words' said they are "like steel-toed shoes in Russia, heavy but reassuring". And closed with a tease, the audience chuckling as she wrapped up a poem about heaving and straining between a male and a female with "she's finally beaten him, he is no longer the prep school 100-metre champion".

There was laughter all around.

'An Evening of Contemporary Literature' takes place at RedBones The Blues Café on the last Wednesday of every month.