November 19, 2020

2nd Wednesday Open Mic, November 11


Jackie Craven continues as our gentle host, here on Zoom, on the 2nd Wednesday open mic.

David Graham started us off with 2 poems of celebrations that he said came out in one fell swoop, available in his book The Honey of Earth (Terrapin Books, 2019), “The Dogs in Dutch Paintings,” & “Listening for Your Name.”

Mary Ann Rockwell, who runs poetry programming out of the Saratoga Springs Public Library read a memoir titled “Taboo” about her brother & watching TV on Saturday mornings, & the racism of the Tarzan & Jane programs.

This being Armistice Day/Veterans Day I read a poem for a friend from when I was in training at Fort Knox (who did not make it back from Viet Nam) “John Lees.”

Bog Sharkey read his annual cento formed from lines from 2020 Best American Poetry Anthology, “Cento Forming An Idealized Memory of My mother for the Ocean.”

Susan Kress read “Outing” about forgetting things & writing it down, then a poem about imperfection, “Celadon” (which is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware, and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks).

Scott Morehouse read a tale titled “The Unexpected but Happy Result of One” about a seance of only one person, the story graced with his usual hysterical flourishes.

Jackie Craven said her piece “Georgian Colonial” was an “architectural poem,” detailed, with images of history & war built in.

I haven’t seen Cathy Clarke at a poetry open mic in many years & was pleased to hear her read her descriptive, meditative poem “How Autumn Ends.”

Susan Jewell used the Zoom screen-sharing feature to show the images from Rattle Magazine that her poems were based on, one titled “The Taste of Color,” the other, a poem that was a winner (!) in the ekphrastic contest, “After the Extinction.”

You can find out more about this monthly series on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, including the Zoom link to find your way there, at the Facebook group page WritersMic.

 

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