Writers Mic, May 10

Jackie Craven manages to squeeze in a lot of good writing, poetry & prose, in a Zoom hour, from a stable of regulars, friends who like hanging out reading to each other. Tonight there was even some leftover time for extras.

First up was David Graham with a very new poem, “A Daily Chore,” from a passage by Jim Harrison about living in the now, then from a Haiku exchange with a friend “Earth Day” in 4 Haiku.

I was up next with a poem from the streets of Philadelphia based on one by William Carlos Williams with the same title, “The Great Figure,” then a new one based on a real name from the days on the job “Vaseline Johnson.”

Alan Catlin, who has plenty of new poems he said, read 2 old poems, “An Explanation for an Extra-terrestrial of Beethoven’s 9th Directed by Leonard Bernstein on TV with the Sound Turned Off” in multiple parts equal to the title; then a telling of a conversation with a crazy guy (or an alien?) in a store at the Mohawk Mall in which his inner snark from the bar business comes out.  

Susan Carol Jewell said she had received a notice today of a poem accepted from Comstock, the poem titled“The Taste of Color” about her mother; then an ekphrastic piece, “Take Me In” based on a sculpture.

Scot Morehouse read a humorous piece about a group calling themselves R.O.M.E.O.s (i.e, Retired Old Men Eating Out), a cranky rant from a befuddled old white man.

Jackie Craven read from her surreal series in which the times of day such as “Half-Past Eleven” & “Eight PM” are treated as human-like entities, a tremendous challenge to the imagination that she manages to make sound almost every-day.

Sue Oringel read an older poem titled “Fruit Cocktail” prompted by hospital food that brings up a memory from her childhood; then Sue talked about a website of online poetry workshops run by the poet James Crews, The Pause, then read a poem “We Are Here to Take Care of Each Other” inspired by someone else. 

Jackie then offered some poetic “overtime” & 3 poets stepped up. David Graham read 2 more Haiku from his series “Stroke Haiku;” Alan Catlin read “An Unanswered Phone Call is the History of Life;” & Sue Oringel read “Spring Returns” about a partner who died, imagining a past that didn’t happen.

This Zoom gathering happens on the 2nd Wednesday of the month, & you can find the link on the Facebook page for Writers Mic — join us.