Happy Birthday, Bil Lewis

 

 

Happy Birthday, Bil Lewis

 

 

Stone Soup Croutons, 11-6-24: Cheer Up

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions selected 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 collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.

So an election happened on Tuesday. Unfortunately. But Richard Spisak also happened on Wednesday. I ended up having to be away from the call due to an emergency. Thankfully, Bil Lewis stepped in as host.

 

 I skipped three weeks worth of Crouton poems. I'm hoping to write those up if I have time. I need to restart the process here, or I'll never catch up.

Thanks for reading.

 

Cheer Up

Pink hats march

in place

at bottom of

Fimbulwinter bin.

Happy Birthday, Bil Lewis

 

Most Economical GoodBye for 2023: Bil Lewis

With the Assemblage Gallery no longer available to us and Bil Lewis no longer living in Boston, it was only appropriate we did two farewells in one night. It'd be sadder if only the goodbyes weren't so damn numerous at this point. Bill is still with Stone Soup most nights from Idaho via Zoom, but we really need to find a new home.

Stone Soup Croutons, 11-29-23: The Background Characters Speak

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions selected 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 collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.

Dan Provost was a great feature on Wednesday. Support him by donating to donating to his PayPal (danprdn@aol.com) or buying his new book from Alien Buddha Press. Or this one from Roadside Press. It was a fun open mic that stood in contrast to the tone of Dan's work. With this week's piece, I tried extra hard to go with a Bukowski tone to go with Dan's style.

For Bukowski poems, I think you have to be miserable to start writing it, in a much better mood to edit them, and you have to be brave enough to use the pronoun "I." 

I got one out of three. It was too much fun to do.

Thanks for reading.

 

The Background Characters Speak

And the last 

shall be first

when?

We're not here

because we

like the food.

Stone Soup Poetry Open Mic, 5-10-23

From this week's online gathering. Enjoy the screen shot of smiling Bil, and we'll see you next week.

Happy Birthday, Bil Lewis

 

Bil Below the Cityscape

The Assemblage Gallery has an amazing show this month. With the new lighting, the artwork above Bil Lewis as he performed really came to life after sundown. I was recording with my cell phone, so I had to take a photo with my antique iPad. Doesn't do it justice. If you really want to appreciate the work, you should visit the gallery this weekend.

Bill Lewis at Stone Soup Poetry, 4-26-23

Thanks to Bil Lewis for providing footage of his Stone Soup Feature. Ignore the asshole doing the introduction. 

Waving Bye to the Assemblage

 

 

Once again, Stone Soup Poetry says goodbye for now to the Assemblage Gallery. We thank Bil Lewis for his farewell feature and wish him well with his new home in Idaho (and of course, we'll see him the next time Stone Soup is online, so it's the best of all worlds). Stay tuned to find out what happens in May when Stone Soup turns fifty two years old.

One More Time

Back to the Assemblage Gallery. Bil Lewis sends us off tonight and helps end yet another chapter in Stone Soup's history. Won't you join us?

Tonight: The End of Two Eras

Join us this evening as Stone Soup says goodbye to Seaport and to Bil Lewis.

April 26: Tonight's Stone Soup is a Night of Sad and Goofy Goodbyes

 

 

Tonight is Stone Soup's last night at the Assemblage Gallery. It is also the final in-person feature for Bil Lewis before he moves to Idaho.

Bil will certainly still be around during our online gatherings, but we wanted to give him a proper send-off all the same.

Be at the gallery tonight for Bil's physical goodbye and the prelude to me scrambling to figure out where I'm going to find another in-person gathering place for Stone Soup's fifty-second anniversary celebration next month.

 

Bil Looks Disgusted by Our Waving

 

 

Thanks to everyone who joined Stone Soup's online open mic last night. Next week will be our last time in the Assemblage Gallery for the foreseeable future. Stay tuned for more news for May as we scramble for a location.

Why Does Bil Look Like a Muppet When He Waves?

 

 

Thanks to everyone who came out to the Assemblage Gallery last night. It was great to see you and hear you read. Next week, Stone Soup returns online to feature Frances Donovan.

Stone Soup Croutons, 12-7-22: Annual Leave

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 collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.

Wednesday night's Stone Soup was good. Almost an early holiday party before all the unofficial holiday parties start. Must have been the urge to wear Santa hats (thank you Bil for lighting that inspirational fuse). I finished the poem that night almost as a single paragraph prose poem and had no problems figuring out the lines stanzas later. Fun work for a change.

 

I guess as with last week, I'm thinking of whatever time off I have coming that messes up my regular routine and my equilibrium. Maybe next week will be title "Sick Day," but hopefully not. 

Looking forward to Deb Priestly's live reading next week. Hopefully, a hybrid system will work and we can all be together for more holiday cheer. 

 

I really wrote "holiday cheer," didn't I? Well, I'll stand by it for now. Thanks for reading.

Annual Leave

Blues are a bitch at dinner,

hippopotamus in room, on table,

 

crushes you before world 

railroads you over again.  

Stone Soup Croutons, 10-19-22: Monster Manual

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 collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it.

My work week started last Wednesday with our live show with Carla Schwartz. It ended this past Wednesday with our online open mic. It's amazing that I can even type anything at all.

Didn't want to go with "misanthrope" this week. Went more Halloweeny because of Bil Lewis' bit, which you can watch here. Thanks for reading.

Monster Manual

Don't bring slippers to any séance.

Those skeletons in cellars might 

be offended. Lace ritual circles with

anthrax because people are too impatient

Stone Soup Poetry Open Mic, 10-19-22

From this week's online gathering. Good to be back online. Looking forward to when we can go online and live simultaneously without problems. Until then here's Bil Lewis looking like a weekend TV creature feature host.

 

 

Bil Lewis' Tribute to Mick Cusimano

Video courtesy of  Mirena Chavdarova.