Writers Mic, December 13

Poet Jackie Craven organizes this monthly open mic on Zoom & this night there were 9 writers sharing their work.

First up was David Graham with 2 new poems from an exercise of doing made-up responses from Neruda’s “The Book of Questions,” the 1st titled “Left Turns” wondering if all left turns will equal right ones, then responding to Neruda’s question, "How old is November anyway?" David’s answer a speculative poem, “A Charm That Might Work.”

Alan Catlin described his 2 poems as "dystopian landscape/nature poems," the first a response to an ekphrastic prompt in Rattle magazine with “Shadowlands” with film & music; then a descriptive piece “An Assassination of Crows.”

Rachel Baum announced the recent publication of her chapbook Richard Brautigan’s Concussion from Bottlecap Press, poems inspired by re-reading Brautigan after she had suffered a concussion, but she didn’t read any of those poems. Instead she read “His House 1955,” about a photo of her parents house in Levitttown & a wedding; then, she too had a turn signal poem “No Turn Signal” addressing the residuals of an attack on her & her dog by another dog. 

Rachel’s mention of Brautigan inspired me to read my short poem titled “Channeling Richard Brautigan” which is one of my “poem cards;” then a string of short poems from a recent family party in Philadelphia, “Thanksgiving Notes.”

Scot Morehouse added his usual dose of outrageous humor to the open mic with a parody of those family holiday letters this one as if written by a foreigner spammer in dialect, including the family response.

Ellen White Rook read a couple of descriptive pieces about a land preserve in Western Massachusetts, the 1st untitled, the 2nd titled “The Morning After,” with the descriptive line “here stones wander from their walls.”

Susan Jewell regularly responds to & submits poems to the Rattle ekphrastic project, her most recent rejection titled “Friday Morning” about visiting her father in a nursing home, an image of a white owl; then “The Year of Living Dangerously” another ekphrastic poem with images of shadow puppets & references the movie of the same title. 

Jackie Craven’s poem “Decorating for the Apocalypse” was about her ottoman & her response to the TV news.

Mimi Moriarty read 2 seasonal poems, “2 Wise Men & a  Buddha” about setting up the crêche with a replacement figurine for one of the Wise Men; then a list poem “Inventory for Reasons I Won’t Be Celebrating Christmas,” a memoir of past family events.

This Zoom open mic takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at 7:30 PM; if you want to join us you can find the link on the Writers Mic Facebook page.