Tonight was the night. After two years...

Tonight was the night. After two years of attending monthly poetry readings in Hermosa Beach, Portia Chow was ready.

Up in a small room at the community center, munching on potato chips and sipping wine, an eclectic group of poets read their latest creations and gauged their colleagues’ reactions.

Chortles, claps, gasps, frowns, sighs: These were just some of the signs that the anxious readers used to measure the reception to their work.

Then it was Chow’s turn. For the 42-year-old physician, writing poetry has become a private way of dealing with pent-up emotions and trauma that still reverberate from a childhood spent in war-torn Korea.

Now she wanted other people to hear what she had been writing all these years. Hesitantly, she began her poem “Post-War Games,” which told of “legless soldiers walking piggyback on a fellow friend.”

Chow was one of about 10 poets who read at last Sunday’s meeting of the Hermosa Friends of the Arts Poetry Series, where first-time readers like Chow, as well as experienced performers, are welcome.

After the applause, Chow said she was pleased despite being nervous and self-conscious about her Korean accent.

Like Chow, some poets explored age-old issues of love and war. Others poked fun at figures such as Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders and “kind and gentle President Bush.” Some poems rhymed, some poems sang, some poems fell with a clang.

One or two special guest poets usually follow the open readings that begin the evening. Depending on the guests, the crowd can reach up to 50 people, said Denise Dumars, one of the group’s organizers.

One of the guests last week, a self-described exhibitionist named Willie Sims, accompanied his poems with screams, hoots and whistles. “I don’t write for the page, I write for the stage,” rhymed Sims.

The retired credit manager, originally from Miami, said the readings are important because they allow poets to interact with others through their work. “It’s like therapy,” Sims said afterward, stuffing into his sock a bunch of dollar bills, his pay for the evening. The guest readers are paid a small stipend derived from the audience’s $3.50 donations.

Poetry readings have become increasingly popular, Sims said, and although readings are quite frequent in the South Bay, the Hermosa Beach program is the only series in the area.

Said Sims: “It’s a chance for everybody to be famous for 15 minutes.”