Marcel Toussaint will be one of two featured readers at the next •chance operations• reading on Monday, October 29, at Duff's, 392 N. Euclid. The other featured reader will be Drucilla Wall.
Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; admission is $3.
Musical guest will be Will Kyle.
Advance sign-up for the open-mic following the featured readers is encouraged. Click here to sign-up via e-mail.
Marcel Toussaint was first published at the age of twelve when he drew and wrote Holiday cards to be sold to US personnel stationed in North Africa. He never stopped writing.
His poems have been featured in fourteen anthologies, including America at the Millennium. He has read on various radio and TV stations including National Public Radio and the Education channel and the 100,000 Poets for Change.
In early 2009, Toussaint’s poetry entered in the National Veterans Poetry Awards competition won gold medals in the categories of Patriotic, Personal Humorous. His poems are featured in the National Veterans Poetry Anthology.
A selection of his poems has been published in Korean, in Wilderness January 2011. Toussaint writes in English, French and Spanish and has been translated to Dutch, German, Catalan, Korean. He has read his poetry in Paris at the Club des Poetes and in Valencia, Spain 2008. The poet reads his poetry at various open mikes in the St. Louis Metropolitan area.
Marcel Toussaint represented The Saint Louis VA at The National Veterans Creative Arts Nationals in Fayetteville, Arkansas October 2011 and brought back a National Gold Medal in Poetry. He performed his entry on stage and the show was videotaped by PBS to be run in November 2012.
His new novel Terms of Interment, came out October 2011.
The Promised Rose
Inside the greenhouse, warmth, mist, and light
soothing in the early hours, curled dainty petal lips
preside over a completion of a rosy glow.
I searched for you, the promised rose,
on a slender stem with a collar of leaves,
diamond water beads sparkling this morn.
You were holding court among the courtesans
who gravitate in the shade of your persona
wanting to be players in the garden of love.
I paused and gasped, recovered my breath,
moved closer to admire your elegance,
your presence taking over my heart.
With shyness I extended my hand
to hold you for an embrace.
I moved closer and touched your side.
You stung me with a thorn. I jumped back,
letting the blood run down to the ground.
This blood will empty my heart
and create a circle with me trapped inside, wounded,
with no hope for the promised love.
-- Marcel Toussaint
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