Tim Verhaegen’s Zoom Open Mic, November 6

This is one of those rare open mics that didn’t exist before the onslaught of COVID, & came into being when the host, Tim Verhaegen, retired from his long-time employment with State of New York. Tim seems to love having the poets in his living room, so-to-speak.

I was up first with my newest poem “Ancestry.Com,” explaining in poetic terms how it works, while my second-round poem was taken from a phrase from President Trump that I embraced, “Radical-Left Maniac.”

 Jan Tramontano first read a Passover poem “Save Me from Myself” based on a poem by someone else, then later, another that was inspired by a Billy Collins' poem (“At the Window”) about an African violet she nurtured.

Both of Howard Kogan's poems were filled with grim humor, the first, titled “News” was a conversation with his Muse on suicide with the Muse telling him, “poets don’t last forever but Muses do," while the second was a pandemic poem claiming that Mother Nature was doing her best to kill us.

Bob Sharkey was inspired by a collage for his poem “Mouth of the Month” a word/sound play ramble on mouths & history built on Falmouth, native tribes, rivers, then later “Election Night Early” some random thoughts with Tim giving him the first line, “dressed in drag in the dark …” (not sure if that refers to Tim or Bob).

Speaking of Tim, he read “At First Sight” an intensely descriptive piece about meeting a new guy, thinking, “he’s the one,” & in the second round read “Heroes” also intensely descriptive an effusive ode to football players, a game that Tim says keeps him going during the pandemic.

Avery Stempel first read “Middletown” an anywhere USA town filled with Trump flags, then later “The Tao du Magoo” about mushrooms, & squeezed in a longer piece the overly-romanticized “A Dream” of the road in the 1950s.

Sally Rhoades read her brand new poem “The Red Fender” about remembering their childhood with her brother, then, written in April, the philosophical “I Hold Truth on Both On Both Its Sides.”  

Frank Robinson said he had just tweaked “The Way It Used to Be” for tonight (on voting), then “5 Small Words” i.e, the Trump motto “grab them by the pussy.”

Therese Broderick first read from from Seamus Heaney, “The Cure at Troy” with the famous recently oft-quoted stanza, & later her own recent, post apocalyptic “The Gender Reveal Party.”  

Watch for invitations to this roughly once-a-month open mic on the Poetry Motel Foundation mailing list, or find Tim on Facebook & ask him about it.