All Genre Open Mic Out of Bennington, February 14

Charlie Rossiter (our host) & I go way back even before 3 Guys from Albany. When he moved to Chicago many years back Tom Nattell & I would visit him there & participated in open mics that he organized where he developed his opening, hip-hop-inspired rant ending with “the mic is open.”  Which it then was.

Since this was Valentine’s Day I decided that the poems I would read would be on the theme; in the 1st round I read one from my single days in the mid-1970s in NYC written from the point of view of a gorilla in a cage in Europe “And a Venus on a Half Shell;” in the 2nd round I read one titled “Adirondack Life,” from 2006.

Bill Thwing’s poems in both rounds were based on Haiku, actually his 1st round poem was a song he wrote on a Japanese Death poem, he played the song on his phone, the recurring line was “I love people but then I loathe ‘em;” in the 2nd round he read from a Haiku anthology edited by Charlie Rossiter in the late 1970s, at the end Charlie talked about his experience editing it the volume.

Sheryll Bedingfield in the 1st round read a love poem from her 2016 book The Clattering, “Isabele & Ian Early On” set in 16th century Scotland; then in the 2nd round one titled “Mountains” filled with “grey-green giants,” also, perhaps, a love poem.

Alexander Perez’s piece had the strange historical title “The Apocryphal Note to St. Valentine” but was a love poem to his boy friend; in the 2nd round he read one titled simply “Juniper,” a portrait/meditation.

In both rounds Tom Nicotera stayed on the theme of the day with love poems, in the 1st round the short “Midnight Lovers,” then in the 2nd round the tender “Waking with You in the Morning (to Sherry).”

Our host, Charlie Rossiter was next, said he has been digging around in his files again, found a descriptive piece about Santa Fe “Plaza Morning;” then in round 2 one from the old days in D.C. about a restaurant gone now “One Summer Day at the Pig’s Foot.”

Julie Lomoe was distracted by her dinner & when Charlie announced she was next she said, “I thought I was after Charlie;” in both rounds she read pieces that had been published recently in a publication titled New Authors Journal; in the 1st round she read one written for this past Fall’s Herman Melville reading titled “River Reminiscing” the sections in the order of geography, not time; in the 2nd round, “I Can Hear Clearly Now” a memoir about getting hearing aids. Clearly Julie, with a couple of ample novels under her belt, & a long-time habitué of open mics, is not a “new author,” but I guess that is just the name of the journal.

Naomi Bindman read in the 1st round the somewhat revised “The Shape of Wind” 2 hawks flying, a description as the title says; in the 2nd round she read another visually captivating piece that she screen-shared (the wonders of Zoom) “heart space.”

Always fun & filled with poets from everywhere else — every 2nd Wednesday from Bennington, VT, but you don’t have to be. If you are not on Charlie’s ever-expanding list & you want to join us, send him an email (charliemrossiter@gmail.com) & ask for the Zoom link — see you “there.”