Happy Birthday, Carol Weston

 

Carol Weston Features at Stone Soup Poetry, 9-17-25

From this week's online gathering. Thanks to Carol Weston's family for helping Stone Soup be able to view and listen to her for the first time in our five years of existence as an online forum.

 

Until We Meet Again, Carol

Thanks to Carol Weston for a wonderful performance. Thanks to Carol Weston's family for helping her connect from her new home. Stay tuned for more Stone Soup news, and soon!

 

My Long Localized Nightmare is Finally Over

I got the day over with. I'm heading for home soon. Ready to host Stone Soup Poetry tonight. Our beloved Carol Weston is featuring for us with the help of her family. You should not miss this gathering. 

Good Things Are Happening Later

Carol Weston features at Stone Soup Poetry Tonight! Join us early!

Stone Soup Celebrates People Who Deserve to Be Celebrated

Carol Weston returns to Stone Soup Poetry this Wednesday!

September 17: Family Matters at Stone Soup Poetry

I'm happy to have Carol Weston come back to be both seen and heard for a full Stone Soup feature this Wednesday. It's going to be a great reunion. Please be in the virtual aisles for this one.

Join us on Wednesday, September 17 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET by clicking this link.

The meeting ID is 816 5390 7685

Password: stonesoup 

Nancy Dodson (1933-2004)

Nancy Dodson with former BCAE receptionist Taryn Valpey

I received the news from Tom Daley this morning that Nancy Dodson passed away on February 5. A longtime friend of Stone Soup and a co-feature with Carol Weston for Stone Soup Poetry's thirty-fifth anniversary in 2006, she was a constant regular on our remote sessions via telephone for the last three years. My thoughts go out to Nancy's family. I will share more words from and about Nancy when I have permission to.

Stone Soup Croutons, 5-31-23: Nature Hates Us

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.

 

Stone Soup finally reconvened on Wednesday just in time to celebrate our fifty-second anniversary with Carol Weston and Margaret Wesel. It's amazing how many people you can attract by not being around for a while. As you can probably tell, I was still a little sick during the call. It's been a rough spring with the pollen this year. That's likely what led me to write the poem below and use one of my lesser known catchphrases as a title. 

Hope to be back on track soon with more Stone Soup announcements. Thanks for reading.

Nature Hates Us
 

Druids cancel misty 

mountain hop due to 

too much overcast.

Carol Weston and Margaret Wesel Feature at Stone Soup Poetry, 5-31-23

From this week's online gathering. Carol and Margaret help us close out Stone Soup's fifty-second anniversary and make me remember how much I love having friends perform at our venue. More of that soon, please.

 

 

Waving Bye to May

 

 

Thanks to Carol Weston and Margaret Wesel for closing out May with their double feature. Let's see what June holds for Stone Soup Poetry.

Here We Go Again

Getting ready to head home to host my first Stone Soup Poetry since May 10. Carol Weston and Margaret Wesel are featuring tonight. I hope you'll join us. 

At Long Last!

Stone Soup closes out May with Carol Weston and Margaret Wesel.

Stone Soup on May 31: Told You There'd Be a Feature!

Carol Weston's relationship with Stone Soup Poetry is well documented. Margaret Wesel has been a longtime friend of Stone Soup who visits whenever possible. Tonight, Margaret stops by Carol's place, where they will join us online for a double feature to close out Stone Soup's fifty-second anniversary month. I'm just glad I'm able to deliver the goods before May ends. Thanks to Carol and Margaret for agreeing to feature.

Join us tonight on May 31 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM ET by clicking this link.

The meeting ID is 861 4295 9441

Password: stonesoup

 

Stone Soup Croutons, 4-5-23: You Call it Bachelor Life for Dignity's Sake

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.

 

Karen Friedland featured on Wednesday. It was a unique experience. You don't think of setting much with Zoom, but due to an accident preventing my girlfriend and I from getting home, we at at The Real Deal at in Jamaica Plain before walking over to JP Licks.

Whoever thought an ice cream shop/café would get rowdy after dark? That's why the video of the event gets garbled with background noise whenever I speak. I appreciate everyone's patience. I am grateful to Robert Fleming for introducing Karen, and I am doubly grateful to Karen for living up to everyone's high expectations.

This week's poem appears to be a sequel to the more-than-slightly autobiographical poem from last week. Maybe it's because I was smack dab in the middle of Jamaica Plain Centre Street, the setting for some of my most difficult and rewarding years (also related to cancer, having lost my father, grandfather not longer after I moved there). I appreciate Karen's work for giving me the perspective to end the poem properly.

Thanks for reading.

 

You Call it Bachelor Life for Dignity's Sake

 

Another midday morning

when you deduce the value

of your life by taking the age

of your antique one bedroom

Stone Soup Croutons, 12-14-22: Bad Samaritan Advice

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.

 

On Wednesday, Deborah Priestly read to a packed audience at the Assemblage Gallery. This was our last live show of 2022, with more to come in the new year. I am grateful to Duane Lucia for giving Stone Soup the space after being away for over two years.

Hopefully, next  year, we'll have a better way to film our live shows with something besides my iPad. 

 

Today's poem is quick. I need time to recover after every live show, and then I need to catch up on everything. I hate that I keep producing poetry that's almost like a dark side to the positivity on display, but that might be how I roll until the holidays are over.

 

Thanks for reading.

Bad Samaritan Advice

Don't pass by the street vagrant

without tossing a counselor card

into their cup.

Sleeping in a pile of acorns 

instead of outdoor concrete

will work wonders.

From Saturday

Carol Weston celebrated her birthday this past Saturday at the United First Parish Church, and Jim Dunn was one of several people who came to pay tribute to Our Lady Queen of Stone Soup.

Your Weekly Dose of God

A view of United First Parish Church in Quincy Massachusetts, where Carol Weston's eighty-eighth birthday was celebrated yesterday.

Carol Weston & The Boston School

The Oral History Initiative panel discussion with Carol Weston was filmed in April and put up on YouTube last month. Watch it now. Featuring Fanny Howe, Joe Torra, Amanda Cook, Jim Dunn and John Mulrooney. 

Happy Birthday, Carol Weston