Writers Mic, April 14

The 2nd Wednesday open mic, formerly out of Schenectady & hosted by Jackie Craven, now with a new host making his debut tonight, the poet Daniel Sennis, with a cluster of familiar faces here for the open mic. 

I decided I could go first & paid tribute to the recently gone poet & editor of the poetry journal lips, Laura Boss, by reading her poem “My Lover Says I Don’t Pay Enough Attention to Him” from her 1995 collection, Reports from the Front (Cross-Cultural Communications), then read my own poem “The Transit of Venus” that Laura had published in her most recent issue of lips (which she had started in 1981).

David Graham dedicated his first piece to our host, as a teacher, reading the poem “At the Desk” by the German writer, Theodor Storm (1817 - 1888), as translated by Robert Bly, then David’s own poem “The Weight of an Envelope” based on a kids’s comment that he had known his Mom a very long time.

Scott Morehouse read a humorous piece “Theatrical Tidbit 1921” about a fictional show that closed at intermission, perhaps titled “Too Many Nannies” — one can always count on Scott to make us smile, even laugh.

Susan Jewell read what she couldn’t read the last time, “Becoming Galvanized,” a memoir of her father, an ekphrastic piece based on the image of the sun in the bucket.

Mary Ann began with a piece by Denise Duhamel “Wednesday April 29, 1992” then one of her own “The Judge & Her Jury” in which her mother reads her Diary.

Our new host, Daniel Sennis, brought the evening to a close with the latest revision of his poem “Gender Orthodoxy is Booty” a piece in rhyme set at a garage sale, followed by the recently written, descriptive “This Spring Day.”

It’s fortunate that this series, taking place now on Zoom, on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, has found a new host to keep it going. Find out more about it, along with the Zoom link, at the Writers Mic Facebook page.