READINGS : Clubby Port for Poets : Regulars at the Iguana Cafe all seem to know each other, calling out for favorite poems and reciting their words aloud.

To the untrained eye, the Iguana Cafe in North Hollywood might not look like much. But to its regulars, the simple room--part bookshop, part record store, part rumpled salon--is a haven for the creative spirit, a port in a world with little use for poetry, and even less for poets. Here, several times a month, an eclectic crowd ranging in age from twentysomething to 60 gathers to read and listen, to try out new work and to cheer on fellow writers.

The atmosphere is hip and intimate, warmed by low-watt lighting and the murmur of writers who all seem to know each other, and to love each other’s work. Like fans at a rock concert, listeners call out for favorite poems and even recite the words along with the readers.

Although this clubbiness might intimidate newcomers, it does provide poetry--and sometimes other forms of writing--with an atmosphere of enthusiasm. Work is delivered enthusiastically, too, in dramatic tones that turn readings into full-blown performance pieces.

Like the coffeehouses of the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the Iguana uses minimal staging--black backdrop, white spotlight--to intensify the exchange between writer and audience. According to Iguana regular Matthew Niblock, the poetry tends to be personal, philosophical and political in ways that might “put off certain academic poets. We’re pretty freewheeling. We have a tendency to use strong language and explicit sexual imagery.”

Another regular, Teresa Willis, says she writes solely with performance in mind and aims to reach “everybody, not just those schooled in literature.”

The result is impassioned, energetic, sometimes uneven and often very funny poetry that makes for good listening and sends its audience home with a great deal to think about.

Iguana’s owner, Tom Ianniello, has mixed poetry with musical performances since he opened his coffee bar in 1989. Interest in literary events has escalated so that, in addition to featured readers, Iguana now has open poetry workshops on Sundays and several monthly open readings at which any writer present may read, time permitting. All are listed in a monthly calendar available at the cafe.

* Iguana’s November lineup features six readings, beginning Saturday night with Willis. Her poems range from meditations on the maternal instinct to attacks on cultural icons and myths of female beauty. Sharing the bill are two emerging writers: Manuel Schwab, a 15-year-old Orange County poet, and Erika Worth, who characterizes her own work as “graphic and aggressive.”

* Next Friday at 9 p.m., 25 poets will read from the latest issue of Dance of the Iguana, the house quarterly, a labor of love published and financed by Los Angeles poet Jacqueline Kerr. The theme will be “Urban Soul” and readers will include Niblock, whose headlong, free-associative verse takes on love, war and the nature of God; S.A. Griffin, an actor who writes movingly about loneliness and urban Angst ; Scott Wannberg, who covers some of the same ground but in a different style, and Kathleen Hietala, who will read about surviving the nightmare of homelessness.

* A midnight show Nov. 20 will present SOULVISIONS Frontline Poets, a performance group that mixes poetry and music with a focus on African-American culture and politics. Among the readers will be the group’s founder, Sunji Ali, who delivers rhythmic, imagistic verse in a talk-sing style; Jah’ Key Lucien, who writes about race, God and the power of words; and Rose Kirby, a chronicler of African-American history and family ties. Richard Jones, Queen Diamond and several others will also read, to the accompaniment of reggae guitarist Raki Sol-Amon.

* At 4 and 9 p.m. Nov. 21, Los Angeles theater producer and writer Rocky Heck will present an evening of short plays called “Warning Shots IV.” Taking his cue from 1950s coffeehouse theater, Heck has staged similar events at the Iguana.

His newest will include two lively plays about modern love by North Hollywood screenwriter Lisa Morton and a confessional monologue by Los Angeles writer and performance artist Lynn A. Kerman.

* Poet Ellyn Maybe, one of Iguana’s beloved regulars, will read at 9 p.m. Nov. 27. Maybe, author of “The Cowardice of Amnesia,” the only book of poems so far published by the fledgling Dance of the Iguana Press, writes about alienation, love and contemporary culture in a style Niblock calls “this stream-of-consciousness, free-flowing spray of words and images, vivid visuals; a picture-perfect rant.”

* At 9 p.m. Nov. 28, another house favorite, Kiva Jaye Catalina, will read what she calls “November-themed poems” in the company of fellow poet Carlye and musicians Fred Davis, Raphaella Vaisseau, Piriel Marr and Brad Banyan.

Catalina, who appears often at the Iguana, says it “has changed my life: When I saw it I thought, ‘This is North Hollywood in the late ‘60s. I’m home!’ ”

Where and When Location: Iguana Cafe, 10943 Camarillo St., North Hollywood. Hours: Open Sunday through Thursday, 3 p.m. to 1 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. to 4 a.m. Call for times for specific events. Price: Cover charges vary. Coffee, tea and soft drinks available but no food. Call: (818) 763-7735.