Bennington Open Mic, March 9

Traffic is light. It will take 59 min. to arrive, the GPS lady tells me, with an Irish accent, but I didn’t even put shoes on, since this gathering was on Zoom, as it has been for the last year. Our host, Charlie Rossiter, opened the festivities with his introductory chant that he created while hosting poetry events in Chicago. We did 2 rounds, 1 poem in each.

I was first on the open mic list with a new poem, “Chocolate Croissant,” which you can find on the NYS Writers Institute website.  In the 2nd go-around I read about me & Dolly Parton,  my “Vaccine Haiku.”

Mark O’Brien said he was reading his “annual birthday baseball poem” “Sonnet #60.1” which can be found on his Blog spontaneous/sonnets in which at Mass, celebrated by Father Joe DiMaggio, the host turns into a baseball. His second round poem, “Spontaneous Sonnet # 55,” about what position you want to be placed in your casket (unless you plan on being cremated) is also on his Blog.

Laura Ellzey read what she said was her 1st rhyming poem, “I’m Going to Knit Now,” about how it makes her feel peaceful, written in both Spanish & English. In the 2nd round she read her “only Spring poem” about being a small creature under the leaves “A Bit Off the Beaten Path” with references to the film Honey I Shrunk the Kids.

Tom Nicotera, dialing in from Connecticut, read the sequel to the poem he read last month, this one titled “Confessional: The Sequel, Alone or With Others” about his anxiety about his confirmation. His 2nd round was out of order due to losing his internet connection but when he did he read from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s A Coney Island of the Mind poem #9, a morning-after poem.

Jack Rossiter-Munley was upstairs for his first round, played the traditional Appalachian folk tune “Shady Grove” on his guitar, & later (see below) came downstairs.

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read a loving memoir, “Along the Oregon Coast,” about having oysters with his wife Mary Ellen on a spur-of-the-moment trip. Then in the 2nd round the afore-said Jack backed up Charlie on guitar on as Charlie did his stirring old poem I’d heard in our 3 Guys from Albany performances, “Sweet Home Chicago.”

Elaine Frankonis was around in the early days of before the Albany poetry scene was getting going, read “The Gravity of Gardens” and the lushness of flowers. On the 2nd time around she read a sexy story of a former love “Legacies” — good to see her out reading again.

Anthony Bernini’s first round poem was about the constellations, “When the World Turns Upside Down,” then when he read the 2nd time one about a snapping turtle on his lawn, “Turtle Eggs.” 

Barbara Sarvis looked back to younger years in her 1st round poem “Twice Seduced.”  Then, later, a piece titled “Just Be” describing this message as orbs bouncing around in her brain — good advice, I think.

Julie Lomoe was the last poet in both rounds, grossing us out with a just written piece, “Barfing Zoloft,” her history with psycho-tropic pills. & she ended the night with a dark piece from her “subdural project” about getting stung by “Garden Yellow Jackets.” 

It was another night of varied pieces, in prose, poetry & music in Bennington, or wherever the poets were, apparently just throughout the Northeast this night. Every 2nd Tuesday on Zoom, at 7PM, contact Charlie Rossiter, charliemrossiter@gmail.com, for the link.