Writers Mic, February 11

The host of this Zoom event is poet Jackie Craven whose most recent collection of poems is Whish (Press 53, 2024) - winner of the Press 53 Award for Poetry.

David Graham was up first with 2 new poems, “Wakeup Call after Martha Solano” like an autobiography through school, love & sex, remembering a day in class; his 2nd poem was a Valentine, “Bathtime,” with the tender/humorous line, “she’s going upstairs to bathe, well, I’ll alert the media…“

Alan Catlin began with a poem written just this Monday, “Once in a Blue Moon," an anxiety dream poem, the jumps & surprises of dreams, with kissing sybils; followed by one written today, another dream, “Kidnapping & the Poetry Reading, an Anxiety Dream Poem.” (I think our dreams write, sometimes, better poems than we do, since dreams are often filled with jumps & leaps, the kind of mixing of images that our best poems should have.)

Then I was next & began with my recent “Birthday Poem 2026,” part of an ongoing practice of writing a poem each year about my birthday, this one in Philadelphia with family during the snowstorm; my 2nd poem, “Vernada Delray,” was written in response to Alan Catlin’s fabulous 2011 collection of poems Alien Nation (March Street Press).

It was good to see Naomi Bindman here again; she read a birthing poem, “Patience of Potato,” a lesson from plants; then a brand new poem of loss, “Will You Come Back?” 

Scot Morehouse is characteristically humorous & outrageous, this night he was no different in 2 short stories; the 1st a (not) news-worthy story of 2 competing standup comics turning 100, Mimi & Mami, vying for all the cake; then “Forgotten,” an early 20th century tale of lady’s underwear, with a concluding limerick which are always funny.

Elizabeth Loctman, overcoming problems trying to unmute, read a political piece from inspired by event last month on the murders of Renee Good & Alex Pretti in Minnesota. 

Susan Carroll Jewell read a revised “Living in the City of the Dead” in the duplex form, mimicking the blues using repetitions (that work so well in poems). 

Jackie Craven read an experiment, from a short story into a poem, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” a surrealist mix of the night her mother died (or not?), a gerbil, a mermaid on the couch.

Theonel Mathebula Zoomed in from somewhere across the globe, with a piece about suicide, “If Suicide Wins,” from a series of how it won’t be dramatic, but he wins by persisting with the little things of his life.

With some time left on the Zoom window, Jackie opened it up to one more poem from anyone interested. I opted to read a quite old poem, “Valentine” (this being February). Theo read  “Between 2 Floods,“ dedicated to a friend in Mozambique who was born on top of the trees in a flood in 2000, last month passed away during another flood. Then Naomi, a lighter poem, new, “Lessons of a Broken Left Wrist: Ode to my Non-dominate Hand.”

One can find out how to join this monthly (2nd Wednesdays) Zoom open mic by visiting the Writer’s Mic Facebook page.  Hope to see you “there”.