2nd Tuesday Bennington Open Mic, September 8

An easy virtual ride to Bennington to Charlie Rossiter’s monthly open mic "for anything" — but haven’t seen any nude fire-eaters yet.  Charlie does the one poem round followed by a second round, which has its own technical problems in Zoom with the mics unmuted & everyone talking at once. As I liked to say when I ran an open mic, “I’m the host — you’re not!”

So I ended up first once again, with a couple of old poems for the workers of the world, in the first round “Joe the Bartender” published in Misfit magazinehttp://misfitmagazine.net/archive/No-30/wilcox.html; in the 2nd round a memoir of my 1969 cross-country trip “Summer in California” at strip club in Riverside, CA.

Bill was here from “Trump country” in Western PA, with 6 haiku written in a notebook his grandson scribbles in; for his 2nd round he played a song on guitar from 1977 about God looking down on his creation (& the Zoom-Inspired interjection “can you hear my guitar?”).

Barbara Sarvis is a regular here, tonight just did the first round reading a piece written last year about listening to “The Sounds of the Night” with her grandma.

Mark O’Brien joined this open mic for the first time tonight, in the 1st round read the first of a series of  “spontaneous sonnets” this about accepting what is; in the 2nd round a piece borrowed from Bob Dylan, but the flag is the Trump flag.

What followed was a confusion of Kens, Kenn Ash signed in after Charlie had set the list with another Ken (with 1 “n”) so when Charlie said “Ken” Kenn didn’t hear it was only 1 “n” & jumped in to read a piece titled “Missing Link”; then for 2nd go-around, a piece in funny rhyme “The Journey of a Leaf.”

Ken Holland was the 1 “n” Ken who had gotten there/here first, read a piece full of lasagna that smelled like women in “Uncle John’s Car” on Memorial Day; later, read “Take a Knee” with references to old black & white movies, the black taken away.

Charlie Rossiter’s poem titled “The End of the World” was about a spot on the campus of Bennington College that reminded him of his college days; for the second round, as he frequently does, he commandeered his son, Jack Rossiter-Munley to accompany him on guitar, tonight for “Euro-trash,” a piece that was performed by 3 Guys from Albany a few times.

The aforementioned Jack Rossiter-Munley performed on his own in the first round playing Woody Guthrie’s “Union Burying Ground” one of the lesser known pieces by Woody.

Tom Nicotera from out in Connecticut read in the first round a dream poem “The Library in Heaven” where everyone is always happy; then on the 2nd time around a short one inspired by being at the edge of a wildlife refuge.

Naomi Bindman from nearby North Bennington read an old poem “In Praise of my Daughter’s Navel” (while pregnant) that I first heard her read back in 2012 at the 2nd Sunday @ 2 Open Mic at the Arts Center in Troy; then 2nd time around she read an angry “Rebuttal” defiant of the misogyny of rap, using their internal rhymes.   

Julie Lomoe was only able to read in the first round & shared her piece “I’d Like a New Sofa,” inspired by Rachel Zucker’s “I’d like a New Flashlight.”

This open mic, formerly at the Tap House in Bennington, VT, is now accessible to folks world-wide on Zoom each 2nd Tuesday. Contact Charlie via email charliemrossiter@gmail.com if you’d like to get the link.