2nd Tuesday All-Genre Open Mic out of Bennington, February 8

 It was quite a night in Bennington, or wherever “there” is on Zoom, with a record-breaking 16 folks in attendance across multiple states & regions of the USA. Our host is Charlie Rossiter who likes to do the 2-round thing & most stayed & read for both. It was way better than the Olympics.

I read first with my new poem “Whistler 2001” about my Winter vest & skiing, or not. In the 2nd round I dug out an old poem about one of my visits to Oak Park, IL to visit Charlie, “At the Garfield Park Conservatory.”

Jim Madigan split up sections of his long poem “Mount Rushmore & the Black Hills” over both sessions, in the first round the sections on Presidents Washington & Jefferson, then in the 2nd round the sections of President Lincoln & the great Crazy Horse.

Julie Lomoe read 2 cat poems, the one in the 1st round on the death of her cat told from the point-of-view of “Sirius the Alpha Dog”. In the second round about a cat named Bela that she had when she lived in NYC in Soho in the ‘60s, on sex & rats (2- & 4-legged varieties) & contrasting with Soho now.

Sheryll Bedingfield’s first poem, “Your Beer,” was a love poem of sorts about tasting a friend’s beer. For her 2nd round she read (the famous) “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou.

Kenn Ash began with a poem from a book he’d written (but unfortunately didn’t share the books’s title or other details) poem about rules, “Order: Keep it Simple.” The 2nd round piece was in rhyme, “I Ain’t Got Time to Be Dead.”

Mark W. O’Brien read from his attic, in the first round read about an old car, “A Visor for a Visor - What care I.” In the 2nd round a poem dedicated to & in the style of his friend Paul Amidon, “The Old Writing Chair.”

Tim Verhaegen only read in the 1st round, a portrait/memoir piece about spending the Summer as a kid at the beach on Long Island, “Grandfather Amagansett.” 

In both rounds Sally Rhoades read poems about exploring her own native roots, in the 1st round a piece written after reading Joy Harjo’s memoir Crazy Brave, “Sitting with Joy Harjo.” Her 2nd round piece, “I Can’t Hear You,” was written in 2014 after listening to Lee Ann Howe read at the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival in Ada, OK.

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read “an old Chicago poem” in the 1st round, “Memorial Day,” which has been accepted for an anthology of poems about Chicago. In the 2nd round he read about a college trip for a long weekend, a piece titled “Snow Blind in Nebraska.”

Elaina Coe Barrett was new here, read only in the 1st round, a poem titled “Aged Out” about a ghost of herself in the woods, & a lightening bug.

Naomi Bindman, read a new, descriptive poem,"Tea Ceremony” for her 1st round entry.  Then in the 2nd round read about the light in “Morning Stillness.”

In his 1st round Bill Thwing read “Future Farmers,” about students keeping their hands clean  raising lettuce hydroponically with cell-phone controls. He brought our his guitar in the 2nd round for a new song, “A Jawbone of an Ass,” which to my ears had an un-stated sub-text.

Barbara Sarvis just did one round, showed us her painting & read the related eco-poem “On the Evening of the Blood Red Moon.”

Laura Ellzey responded to Julie’s dead-cat poem with one about her own cat who had died a long time ago, “Shredded.” Then in the 2nd time around a poem explaining why it is hard to get out of bed in the morning in Winter in Vermont with animals (i.e., the 4-legged kind) in the bed, “The Fullness of the Lack of Motivation.” 

Bridgit Milman read water poems in both rounds, 1st “Pleasant Bay” & what’s under the water, then later read about the joys of an outdoor shower in the Summer.

The last reader, Tom Nicotera, read in his first round a February poem titled appropriately enough “Light in the Window Late February.” For the final piece of the evening he read a prose poem by Etheridge Knight on the maze of bureaucracy, “Rehabilitation & Treatment in the Prisons of America.”

An evening of varied poetry & art, in the pleasant warmth of our own homes via Zoom. It happens each each 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM Eastern time. If you are not on Charlie’s regulars email list, email him at charliemrossiter@gmail.com & he’ll set you up. & remember to mute yourself when you are not reading, it makes for a much for pleasant environment for us all.