For music lovers, the sound of their favorite songs or seeing a favorite performer live can be a magical or even life-changing experience. For many fans of The Grateful Dead, better known as Deadheads, poetry has been a rewarding way to express their appreciation for music.

This Saturday, Deadheads and poetry buffs alike can head to Alibi Bookshop in Vallejo to hear readings from “Poetry is Dead II: Once You’re Dead, You’re Dead Forever,” which was released earlier this year. The poetry anthology features over 80 poems about The Grateful Dead by fans.

In May of 2022, author PW Covington compiled poems from Deadheads across the country for “Poetry is Dead,” an anthology by lifelong fans, dedicated audience members and first time listeners with something to say.

One of the poets featured was Vallejo’s own former poet laureate D. L. Lang. After her work was featured in the first anthology, Covington asked Lang to edit the second edition. The second book was released in January and features poets from around the world.

Although Lang is a fan of The Grateful Dead, she is a poet first and has written about her experience with a variety of musical artists. For her there has always been a tie between her love of music and her love of poetry.

Lang first began writing poetry in an attempt to write songs. Eventually her focus shifted to solely the written word, but writing poetry about music gives her and others an outlet to express her appreciation for music, she says. “It’s a way of honoring your heroes.”

Of the roughly 80 contributions to the second anthology, there are 15 from California and three from Solano County: Johanna Ely, former poet laureate of Benicia, Becky Bishop White of Benicia and Hakim of Vallejo.

Several of the California contributors and Lang herself will be reading their included poems this Saturday at Alibi Bookshop for “An Evening of Deadhead Poetry.”

As someone who’s written about The Grateful Dead and other favorite artists such as Woody Guthrie, Lang says there’s something special about Deadheads.

“I think the cohesiveness of the community is really cool, that you can find people from all over the world,” she says.

When Lang and Covington first put out the call for poetry submissions back in July of 2024 up until they closed in November, they received more submissions than they could handle.

“We had more poetry submitted than we could actually accept. I had to turn about 20 Deadhead poets who had great poems, away because we only had space for 80,” says Lang.

The included poetry ranges in style and topic. Some poems were inspired by The Grateful Dead songs, some from concert experiences and others to remember loved one’s who were Deadheads.

Lang’s included poem in the anthology, titled “Sunday Daydream” was written about her experience at Phil Lesh’s last show at McNear’s in San Rafael just before he died. It begins “Swaying in a sea of tie dye / grass like incense in the wind.”

Although the poems in the anthology are all inspired by The Grateful Dead, Lang says you don’t have to be a Deadhead yourself to enjoy them.

“There are just human experience poems in here…their experiences at concerts and things which any fan of any band can really relate to that, and it might turn people into fans if they read it,” she says.

WHAT: An Evening of Deadhead Poetry

WHEN: Saturday, 4 p.m.

WHERE: Alibi Bookshop, 624 Marin St., Vallejo.