Out of Bennington All-Genre Open Mic, April 9

A post-eclipse gathering of poets, from lots of places. Our host Charlie Rossiter likes to do the 2-round thing, as long as the poets have 2 poems (which, of course, they do).

I was “there” early & was first on the sign-up list. In the 1st round I reprised my poem from yesterday’s eclipse party at UAlbany reading poetry for a thousand or more students & other celebrants, “Spathe is the Plathe” about the 2017 so-called “great American eclipse.” In my 2nd round, an old poem for an even older celebration “What Passover Has Taught Me.”

Cheryl A. Rice read “I Forgot the Glasses,” found another one, about our disappointments in the sky & elsewhere. In her 2nd round she read a piece titled “Breakfast Solo” sprung from a poem she heard at a reading.

Tom Nicotera began with a longer poem about a trail head library at a nature center in Woodbury, CT,  stories in the forest & the “book” of Nature. In the 2nd round he read a  a poem he found in his taxes that he forgot he had written, about hunting bears.

Bill Thwing brought out his guitar for both rounds; in the 1st round “Foggy Days & Foggy Nights” about scary nightmares as a scout; in the 2nd round, “Mountain Meadow” with lyrics written by his wife.

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read a poem about attending a concert at Bennington College, the lights going out & back on during the “Concert to Dispel Demons.” The 2nd poem a piece of American working-class nostalgia, “For the Frederick I70 Rest Stop Torn Down."

Sharon Smith read a poem with a tantalizing title, “Hearing the Shaman Boogie, or Is That a Waltz?,”with a complex mix of dead dogs & her late Mother, numbers & other signs from friendly spirits; in the 2nd round a piece from last Fall about listening to the rain, “Birds Speak.”

Julie Lomoe also had an “eclipse poem” of sorts, a memoir of Charles Mingus at the Newport Jazz Festival, the Mingus band playing his tune “Eclipse;” in her 2nd round she read a poem from 2014 “Blinded by the Spotlight,” about reading a poem on stage surrounded by photos of stars of the past.

Naomi Bindman’s 1st round poem was written in the Fall, “Interstices,” with leaves, song & love; & for the final poem of the night she read “Shabbat,” which was brought to her mind by my poem earlier “What Passover Has Taught Me.” 

This monthly gathering is on Zoom each 2nd Tuesday of the Month; if you would like to join it & you are not yet on Charlie’s email list, write him at charlierossiter@gmail.com & ask him to send you the Zoom link.