CHRISTINA EICHELKRAUT / PVT Judy Strickland shares her poetry to the intently-listening crowd that gathered at Lois Layne's ice cream shop and deli for the open mike poetry reading session. The public is invited to bring and read their own original works or even just read some of the classics. Advertisement

Promptly at 10 a.m. on Saturday, the eclectic group of poets and writers who host and regularly attend Open Mike Poetry at Lois Layne's, the deli and ice cream shop located at 20 Dahlia Street, were setting up the microphone and getting ready to share their passion with patrons and burgeoning poets alike.

The two-hour session is an opportunity for local poets to come and share their own original works, read the works of classic poets, or just sit in and listen.

It all started about a year ago, when published poet John Salacan found Las Vegas wanting in the poetry groups department.

"A lot of people, and I found this insulting, would come to read their own stuff and then leave," Salacan said.

To Salacan, that defeated the point of having a poetry group at all.

"(Poetry) was meant to be read out loud, it was meant to be shared," Salacan said. "It just needs that human element, and then it comes alive."

Having moved to Pahrump, the local book antiquarian decided to start a group here that was open to the public, allowing everyone to share in his passion.

Salacan was joined by several other local poetry enthusiasts, notably members of the Tumbleweed Tales Society, a separate poetry group that has readings at the library on the first Saturday of every month.

The poetry and songs read during the session reflect the diversity of the "regulars" attendees themselves.

Salacan read selections from his own books as well as introducing the group to Gerard Manley Hopkins, a nineteenth-century religious poet.

Salacan said he selected Hopkins' works to read aloud because "his language is amazing."

Then there was George A. Strickland, who prefers to be known as "Cornbread Amos."

Strickland, a cowboy poet and inveterate story teller, livened up the Lois Layne's meeting by singing various humorous songs (such as "I Fell off the Wagon Again," sung to the tune of "Back in the Saddle Again"), reading selections from his own cowboy poetry, and then switching gears a bit by sharing selections from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" (who Strickland describes as "a feller from Europe you may have heard of").

For Strickland, life really began when he turned 52, after getting out of the Army and retiring from a career as a bill collector.

"I used to tell stories in the Army when the guys were on break and we were all settin' around," Strickland explained. "What I love to do more than write--writing is a chore for me--is to perform my poetry."

Then there was Strickland's wife, Judy, who greeted everyone with a warm smile and plenty of copies of extra poems for anyone to read.

Judy Strickland also read some her original poetry, including "The Desert Gift" as well as Edgar Allan Poe's "The Bells," all while ensuring the mike was always in use.

Asya Ivanova, from the Ukraine, added international flavor to the group by reading some of her poems in Ukrainian, a beautiful language full of melodic peaks and valleys.

Her poem "Dream of Dreams" was recited in her native tongue after which Salacan read the translated version.

Ivanova, who has been writing poetry since she was seven years old, said the poetry group inspired her to translate her poems into English.

Several people came in to join in and listen, including Charlie Anzalone, a former candidate for the county commission, and local Deborah Aiken.

And of course, a few holiday poems were read as well.

The poetry group is guaranteed to have something for everyone, whether you just want to listen for a bit or read yourself.

The group meets every second Saturday of the month at Lois Layne's from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

For more information, contact Salacan at (775) 537-7066.