Zachary Schomburg and Joyelle McSweeney took the stage in a Next Word in Poetry event at the Poetry Center on Oct. 11. The audience was packed and energy ran high for the two young poets.

Schomburg read from two of his books, “Fjords vol. 1” and “Scary, No Scary.” After reading his first few poems, he asked the audience, “Anybody else have parent issues?” and got a good laugh, segueing into his reading of poems with themes of parental conflicts. Schomburg set up familiar landscapes in his poems, lulling the audience into a sense of security — but it was always impossible to predict what would happen next.

After about five or six poems, Schomburg said he was distracted by the beauty of his audience and asked for a camera. Stepping back from the podium, he photographed the group and told them that they were beautiful and that he would send the photo to his mom because “She doesn’t believe I’m doing well.”

McSweeney read next, and as soon as she took her place behind the podium, everyone in the audience could tell they were in for an energetic reading. She started off by warning the crowd that she does a kind of voodoo move during her set of poems called “King Prion,” as a kind of calling before each of the separate pieces.

McSweeney added that she has an intense interest in “bad things,” and feels it’s her job to read morbid or sad things in the news and then write about them.

McSweeney’s reading moved quickly, her gestures keeping pace with her words. She was hard to keep up with at times, but her energy was contagious, and the crowd was mesmerized.

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