Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked up from poems overheard from Stone Soup's open mic readers and features. I figure out a title (and sometimes the rest of the poem) later. You can read the other ones I've done since 2015 here. To paraphrase Lorne Michaels, this poem doesn't go up because it's ready, it goes up because it's Friday morning.
Toni Bee hosted an incredible open mic and workshop on Wednesday while I was featuring in Lowell. So if I wasn't there, how am I writing this? Because I got to see so much of it through the Instagram accounts of Toni and Chris Robbins. And Chris hasn't been at Stone Soup in a while, so that was a nice surprise. I hope he (and everyone else) comes back.
I wanted to write a little something in appreciation of Toni and everyone who came. I only heard a couple of poetry clips, so I started out riffing on a signature Toni Bee poem she might have performed this Wednesday night. Thanks for coming in my absence, and thanks for reading.
In Absentia
for Toni Bee
To have a party with no one around
is an act of resistance.
To continue when people show
is a revolution.
Leaves that will turn to brown
can be gold for a time
the way even love once stayed
in an ex-lover's photo.
The blackbirds will pick it apart
to try and find it.
Special thanks to José, Lee Varon, Chris Robbins, Ethan Mackler, Blackbyrd and Toni Bee.
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