Poetry Power Hour, February 19

Collar City Mushrooms is not just the breeding ground of mushrooms (if that is the correct term), nor just a retail store for more mushroom varieties than you ever knew, but is also an art gallery & performance space & home to the 2nd Sunday @ 2 Open Mic for Poetry + Prose. Urged on by poet Tim Verhaegen, Avery Stempel, the proprietor of Collar City Mushrooms, put together this poetry event to showcase the work of some of his poetry friends, as well as his own extensive body of work.

It began with a short open mic. I read a dream poem “Lily White,” then Carrie read a poem titled “A Resolution,” & Alexander Perez also read a dream poem.

Avery selected some long-time poetry friends to be the “invited poets” to read, & introduced them with nostalgic reflections on their poetry connection. Samson Dikeman read 2 pieces, apparently untitled, one on the imagined implications on finding a torn corner of a manuscript of music by Mozart, the other in the voice of a dandelion crushed by the stone that was rolled back from the grave of Jesus, with the line “the Savior came 3 days late …”

Mary Panza’s first poem was a pro-Roe manifesto/rant, which she followed with another of her marvelous rants, which are usually addressed to someone (unnamed) who deserves it (I think she should license the rents for people to use as needed).

Amber Jackson began with an untitled poem addressed to “you” (perhaps the poem itself?) about the poem being written; then a poem written today, also untitled, about her mother, on her mother’s birthday.

Tom Verhaegen, whom you can often find here on the 2nd Sunday, read an extended piece about walking in a cemetery, then worries about being mugged there & dying there.

Avery, April 2000, Cafe Web

Then on to Avery’s retrospective/anthology, which he described in the program as “A Mass of Entangled Meanings Delivered by a Wondering Wanderer.” There were 29 titles listed, & while I took notes on many of the poems, I can’t attest to whether he read all of them, though certainly most. He began with what is certainly an Avery classic, “From Me to You,” on building & exchanging a smile. Indeed, his performances can best be described as “enthusiastic,” & a frequent style or manner in his performances is that of a chant, as well as at times singing. 

This day, since there was a printed program, he frequently omitted the title in his performance & at times simply ran the poems together. There were portraits, sometimes satirical, there were philosophical ponderings, an ekphrastic poem (“Portals and Doors”), a Cento composed of texts of friend requests from social media, poems about his childhood memories, tales of installing a ceiling fan, even an audience-participation piece in English & Sanskrit. Phew, it was exhaustive, uplifting, funny & a good time was had by all.

Check out Collar City Mushrooms online for their menu of available mushrooms, mushroom products & wares, & for upcoming events, & art exhibits, & join us each 2nd Sunday at 2PM for Poetry + Prose.