Joe Toner And Dan Rourke: Two Poets Who Really Want You To Come to Their Show

They don’t ask for much. Joe Toner and Dan Rourke just want you to come to their poetry reading on Sunday, February 8 at 2 p.m. at the Lakewood Public Library.

To that end, Joe Toner has composed an invitation that is heartfelt in both feeling and expression to persuade you. Feel free to be moved by what follows:

Good Citizens of Cuyahoga County and the Hinterlands Beyond:

Come relieve the soul-searing boredom between Super Bowl Sunday and Valentine’s Day/Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition with poetry on February 8th. Fanciful, mellifluous poetry. Weepy, delicate poetry. Poetry that inspires the heart and tickles the small intestine. Poetry that prompted National Geographic to say about Dan Rourke and Joe Toner: “These two poets are the giant squids of the post-modern, pre-natal, cage-free poetry movement: mysterious, frightening, towering, and, like calamari, excellent with dried parsley.”

Since the show is free, you have nothing to lose except time--which you can regain when the clocks are set back.  This show is suitable for all ages, especially people with existential confusion, metaphysical longings, and webbed feet.

Sincerely, Joe Toner

If you still aren’t convinced to attend this special Sunday with The Friends program (and we find that very hard to believe) Dan Rourke has crafted an invitation to remove even the slightest hesitation you may still be feeling:

To Anyone with a Portable Sense of Humor and an Itch to make some Noise in a Library:

Mushrooms: Godsend or the devil’s detritus? Where will that foul ball land? In a world of purchasable devices, what does it mean to be left to one’s own devices? What would it be like to be reincarnated as a sneeze? Just what is lacking in the words catheter, China, and celibacy?

Reading from my collection of poems, Catch Me, and my being-revised-as-we-speak new novel, Fair Hooker Never Let Me Down, I will not only ponder such questions and more, but even answer most of them and more. Unless you are saddened that my color-blindness makes me dress pathetically, I guarantee that you will leave this poetry reading (my half, at least—one never safely can vouch for Joe Toner) smiling and not depressed. You’re invited.

Dan Rourke

And there we have it. Two very good reasons to join us in the Main Auditorium of the Lakewood Public Library at 15425 Detroit Avenue on Sunday, February 8 at 2 p.m. for the poetry of Joe Toner and Dan Rourke.

Notice: The views and opinions of Joe Toner and Dan Rourke do not necessarily reflect the views of the Lakewood Public Library.

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Volume 11, Issue 3, Posted 1:20 PM, 02.03.2015