Stone Soup Poetry Open Mic, 12-8-21

From the weekly online gathering. Verse, music, and THE POET WHO COULDN'T GET KICKED OFF OF ZOOM! Seriously, Chris Fitzgerald is now in The Matrix.

 

Stone Soup Poetry Open Mic, 11-3-21

From the weekly online gathering. The hiatus is over. Thanks for coming back. Apologies to Chris Fitzgerald for being responsible for his "Wha Hoppen?" moment.

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 9-1-21: Poet's Petty Revenge

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions picked from Stone Soup Poetry'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.

I also have a book out now collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.

Wednesday was the first open mic of the month. Hurricane Ida was raging, which no doubt affected some people's connectivity (sorry, Chris Fitzgerald). But we had old and new names alike. It was fun. The poem below reflects the poetry manifesto-heavy open mic with a touch of recent news here and there, including the story of Caleb Wallace. It's more silly than morbid, but it's the poem that I had to write. 

Poet's Petty Revenge

What's the difference
between a wake and 

a poetry reading? 

Poets get to choose

when they, the center

of attention, are taken away.

Stone Soup Croutons, 7-12-18, Conspiracy Theory

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 afternoon.

Stone Soup came back last night. I was still tired from my recent traveling, so there was little fanfare or even announcement, but we still had a good audience. I'm grateful.

My piece is a little lighter than usual (for me anyway). Blame Chris Fitzgerald's historical/pop cultural references. I just went with it.

Stone Soup Croutons, 6-5-17, Untrue Tidbits and False Facts, Part Two

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions butchered 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. My two year anniversary draws near!

Last night we had another open mic. Maybe it was Chris Fitzgerald's pre-show story of being on "The Bozo Show" as a child, but I decided to make a lot of stuff up. Turned into a sequel of sorts. Nice surprise. Credit should also go to this informative video essay by Lindsay Ellis. Give her credit but none of the blame. So here goes..


Untrue Tidbits and False Facts, Part Two

The last recorded feel-good
World World II movie with mirth,
kicks to Nazi pants all around
depicted prison camps
no one yet lived through.

May 8: Stone Soup's Open Mic Keeps On Going

With the end of National Poetry Month and the Massachusetts Poetry Festival out of the way, I can go back to focusing on Stone Soup's forty sixth anniversary. We have another open mic this Monday, and we have another collage courtesy of Chris Fitzgerald's collage of photos (likely by Julie Stone). Hope to see you tonight.

Stone Soup Croutons, 5-1-17, The Draw

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions butchered 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.

This is the first time I've had to do a croutons poem on the very day Stone Soup Poetry was founded. Last night was Soup's forty-sixth anniversary. Carol Weston came out. Many people returned after being away for so long. Chris Fitzgerald even read a translation of poems by Wieczor Autorski while giving a nod to the Stone Soup open mic and presented one to me once the night was done. Stories of Jack Powers came early in the night, and while I wasn't planning a tribute poem--let alone a poem this long--that's what came out in the end. I appreciate the inspiration.


The Draw
for Stone Soup's Forty-Sixth Anniversary

The tension of hope
is enough to light a match.
You give your therapist
your thirty day notice
and hope they accept it.

May 1: Happy Forty-Sixth Anniversary, Stone Soup Poetry

Stone Soup turns 46 today. Out of exhaustion, I couldn't plan anything to do for this month after years and years of anniversary shows. I can't do it. Until today, I couldn't even be bothered to do an event page. A Facebook post I wrote Friday gathered more response than any of my Yahoo! Group and Meetup or other pages combined since January. It's an anniversary night, and you'll either come, or you won't. If you do come, share your words, your Jack Powers stories, whatever you like.

Special thanks to Chris Fitzgerald, who shared with me this collage of Stone Soup performers from years past, most likely taken by Julie Stone. 

Stone Soup Croutons, 4-25-16, Loaned Time

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 either then or later. It's likely some of the poets I thank at the end won't even be able to figure out which lines were inspired by their work. To paraphrase Lorne Michaels, the poem doesn't go up because it's good; it goes up because it's Tuesday morning.

My friend Ron Goba gave an intimate reading to an enthusiastic crowd last night. Ron's work is very dense and he read eight poems, which at the moment I was enjoying them were hard to jot down. Therefore I cheated. I took his eight poems, read them over after Stone Soup ended, and incorporated imagery in each one to get an ending to the odd slice of life I was creating with a character I made up on the spot. I couldn't have done it any other way. Enjoy. And thank you, Ron.


Loaned Time

We are all naked
under our costumes.

Our street clothes spit glazed
by madmen on the streets.

Their vulgarities shriek
like a mockingbird's outcry.

Stone Soup Croutons, 1-26-16, Open Mic Songs of Self

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 either then or later. It's likely some of the poets I thank at the end won't even be able to figure out which lines were inspired by their work. This week, I had the title way before I had the poem figured out. Nothing else was easy.

Last night, we had Gladys Hidalgo feature, who was introduced by her friend, prior Stone Soup feature Dexter Garcia. The open mic actually had the highest number of guitar players I think I've ever seen in my last decade of hosting. That and open micer Chris Fitzgerald reading Walt Whitman helped me to turn out today's poem.

I was trying to not write a downer, but when I get writer's block, that's what I tend to do. To anyone there last night, don't worry. It's not you, it's me and my distorted lens. Especially when I'm tired. I also had the Charles Simic poem "County Fair" on my mind. That's also a sad sounding song by Bruce Springsteen.


Edit: This poem, "Stamp," has been published in Issue #3 of Tell Tale Inklings. Please consider purchasing it here. 

Dexter wasn't first, as she introduced Gladys, but she deserved the number one spot.

Special Thanks to Chris Cardone, Mahyrah Shamseddine, Gawaine Ross, David Miller, Bob Tracy, Martha Boss, Susan DeLeo, Angelica Maria, Jason Wright, Chris Fitzgerald, Navah The Buddaphliii, Dexter Garcia and Gladys Teresa Hidalgo.