Are You Experienced?
by Jennifer Lagier
Ah Jimi,
you had me
at the first erotic scream
of tortured riff.
Your fingers teased,
aroused the guitar,
left your audience
begging for mercy.
It was Pleasanton, ’68,
me barefoot, stoned,
accepting every toke
I was handed.
Baby, you touched me
in places no one else
even knew existed,
left me shuddering.
If I wasn’t experienced
before, I was after
embracing the ecstatic burn
of your hot purple haze.
PHOTO: Jimi Hendrix (circa 1968).
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: I am still a child of the sixties! Seeing Jimi Hendrix perform live was one of the highlights of my teen years.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Jennifer Lagier has published ten books of poetry and internationally in a variety of literary magazines and anthologies. Her latest book, Where We Grew Up, was just issued by FutureCycle Press. She taught with California Poets in the Schools, co-edits the Homestead Review, maintains web sites for Homestead Review, Monterey Poetry Review, Ping Pong Literary Journal, misfit magazine and helps coordinate monthly Monterey Bay Poetry Consortium Second Sunday readings. Website: jlagier.net.
AUTHOR’S PHOTO: Jennifer Lagier, signing books at Old Capital Books in Monterey (photo by Laura Bayless).
ABOUT THE MUSIC: Listen to Jimi Hendrix‘s “Are You Experienced” here.
Silver Birch Press 
Whew! I think I need to sit back and have a cigarette, and I don’t even smoke anymore.