Writers Mic, May 14

Another Zoom open mic, usually back-to-back with Charlie’s Bennington Zoom, as it was this night. But for one reason or another it has been months since I’ve been able to squeeze this one in — but here I was (wherever “here” may be).

David Graham was here too, with a new poem, responding to Wordsworth’s quote, “the child is father of the man,” David’s poem titled “The Boy Alive” with images of water & the last hours of daylight.

I was next, & since I haven’t been here since I wrote this year’s "Birthday Poem," I read “Self-Portrait with Cat” in which I introduce my new companion, Balthus, then a poem inspired by news images of flaming Tesla’s “Fire Elon.”

Alan Catlin read a poem inspired by poet Guy Reed, “On Not Writing My Ars Poetica” then read an ekphrastic poem with a long title about driving out west in a nightmarish California (Alan is good at these nightmare scenarios). 

Julie Lomoe read a more cheery poem, “Sunny May Monday,” with her cat, then a piece with allusions to the Opus 40 outdoor art installation in Saugerties, “Death by Blue Stone,” a  personal essay about her fall that resulted in a subdural hematoma some years ago that you may have heard about.

Elizabeth Lockman also read a poem with a cat in it (seems to be a night of felines), “The Creamsicle Girl Dreams of Oranges” which was a response to the ekphrastic challenge in Rattle magazine; then read a prose poem titled “What God Does in His Spare Time Occasionally” in which a strange thing happens to a Bible.

I’ve missed Scott Morehouse reading his raucous imaginary tales, but got a good dose tonight with his piece, “A Howdy Doody Wedding,” written like a news item, 2 former child members of the show’s audience marry years later, with appropriate costumes for the ceremony.

Susan Carol Jewell, as she does often, offered up another Rattle ekphrastic piece, “The Simple Act of Blessedness” that was about bones, & perhaps marriage (again). 

A great surprise was a poet in from South Africa (one of the advantages of Zoom), Theo with an untitled piece in rhyme, where words are his refuge,  & “a promise of beauty;”  then a poem about how hate is a virus, “Dear Life,” but where love conquers hate. Later Theo took advantage of extra time at the end extended by Jackie to read a complex meditation on a simple phrase, “Never Say Never.”

Another new poet for me was Mosa who read 3 Villanelles (!), the first in short lines, the next from a prompt about “the Night walkers,” the last titled “Where the Light?”

Our host, Jackie Craven, read at the very end, what she described as “a silly absurdist prose poem,” a surrealist poem beginning  “My unborn child lives in a halfway house… “ What would André Breton say?

One can find the Zoom link to this monthly open mic at the WritersMic Facebook page 

then join it on the 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7:30PM Eastern (USA) time.