All-Genre Open Mic Out of Bennington, January 14

A popular open mic thriving on Zoom, with our host Charlie Rossiter, who introduced the night with his “the mic is open” rant. Charlie likes to do 2 rounds, 1 poem each round.

I was first up, read the poem “2 dreams” commissioned by fellow Army veteran Mark Tremont for Earth Day last year; Mark was the proprietor of I Fill Inkjets in Delmar, NY until his sudden death earlier this month. In the 2nd round I read a poem inspired by a 1997 exhibit of Stieglitz’s portraits at the Metropolitan Museum of Art “Georgia O’Keefe’s Hands.”

Sharon Smith began with an ekphrastic poem, “The Ohio Day,” based on a painting that invoked memories of her childhood in Ohio; in the 2nd round she paid tribute to the late President Carter, “Dear Jimmy” like a list of accomplishments, “100 years of…” 

Kate McNairy writes very short poems, like gems, & so she read each twice, in the first round “Once,” wistful, at a lake, under stars & a blue Moon; in her 2nd round, a poem about disappearing snow flakes, “Lost.” 

Our host, Charlie Rossiter, read a memoir of returning to his college days, musing on his life, 

“After Reading a Friends Recollection;” for the 2nd round he read from his chapbook, Lakeside Poems, selection of short poems about Lake Michigan (that I seem not to have). 

Julie Lomoe read poems from her recently self-published collection of poems, in the first round a rambling memoir of 1962 in Wisconsin, “Red Alert;” in her 2nd round a dead cat poem, “Lunesta Craves My Breath,” in which the cat teaches her how to die.

In the 1st round Bill Thwing read from The Selected Poems of Ai Qing 20th century Chinese poet (1919 - 1996), the poem “Sea & Tears,” then some Haiku (“because that’s what I do” he said); & in the 2nd round he brought out his guitar to sing a song written last year, based on a prompt of AI generated words, about going to Canada to heal after his service in Viet Nam, “there is no future when there’s war.” 

This open mic on Zoom happens on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:00PM Eastern time. If you would like to join in, & you are not already on Charlie’s list, send him an email, charliemrossiter@gmail.com, & ask to join the list.