Happy Birthday, Jan Rowe

Happy Belated Birthday, Jan Rowe

Stone Soup Croutons, 7-24-24: Stars Keep Us in the Dark

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.

An all-open mic happened on Wednesday. A chance to get my bearings before more features come down the pipe. We have Charles Coe next week on the last day of July. I I had more time, I would do highlight reels on YouTube and elsewhere instead of just posting the entire video. I would still post the whole video but highlights might actually entice more people to come. Just a thought in my head. 

Richard Spisak's opening poem about Joe Manchin got me thinking about a certain Dr. Seuss character that couldn't take a hint and leave. That made this poem fun to write. The title comes from another of Richard's science poem. Thanks to Jon Wesick for sending a link.

 

Thanks for reading. 

Stars Keep Us in the Dark

 

Marvin K. Mooney 

never left, has hidden

in congress under 

fake names for years.

The cruel shoes gifted

by Steve Martin

fit like moonshine

with filet mignon.

Stone Soup Croutons, 3-20-24: Who's Your Trinidaddy?

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.

 

Nice all-open mic this past Wednesday. Later today I hope to post info on next week's feature, Linda Carney-Goodrich. 

Thanks to the fun open mic this week. Check it out if you haven't already.

Thansk to Jan Rowe to inspiring the title.

 

Thanks for reading.

Who's Your Trinidaddy?

 

The ones we loved then lost

get ground into food, feed our

romantic nostalgia for what 

never existed. Lizard brain 

Happy Birthday, Jan Rowe

Stone Soup Croutons, 12-21-22: Holiday Limbo

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.

 

A nice open mic before the holidays kick me while I'm down. It's hard to write happy poems when noted members of Stone Soup's alum (Jan Rowe and James Van Looy) talk about the homeless crisis (Pity Bil Lewis missed this week). I'm glad I could turn this into more of a poem and less of a rant with an ending line I thought about before I even finished the first draft. Didn't turn out the way I envisioned it, but that's writing for you.

Thanks for reading. Happy holidays to all who can muster it, a quiet Christmas to those who can't.

Holiday Limbo

Can't change your name

to escape damnation 

like Saul whatshisname.

Winter's an ombudsman's

best friend, whiting out

dead left in the street,

It's the Live Wave (should have done this sooner)!

 

 

An amazing night. Thanks to Deb Priestly for featuring at Stone Soup's last live show of 2022. Thanks also to Jan Rowe and James Van Looy for helping her get there safely. News is coming for 2023. We are excited to announce what happens next!

Happy Birthday, Jan Rowe

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 12-8-21: The Christmas Wars

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.

Stone Soup was back this Wednesday. I know there won't be features for the rest of the month, but I'm not so sure there'll be open mics leading up to the end of the year. A lot is happening, and anything I do could be cancelled at the last minute. I'm taking it one day at a time.

Might as well get my holiday poem in while I can.

I put out the call for submissions for The Christmas Wars at Oddball Magazine yesterday, right after what's being called Pine Eleven. Even though I created the Christmas Wars segment, I don't think I have a poem with that title. Let's change that. 

There were fewer holiday references on Wednesday, but I can do a lot with a little. Thanks for reading. Please submit your work to Oddball!

The Christmas Wars

 

At the end of Die Hard,

Christmas won't be saved

for another year.
Still haven't the chance 

of a steel mill in Pittsburg,

a Romeo do-over,

Happy Birthday, Jan Rowe

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 9-22-21: Exhibition Fight

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.

It was a fun open mic this Wednesday. I hope someday I am able to find words to express the gratitude I feel towards those who help keep my open mic going. This poem doesn't have those words.

I've been feeling a little under the weather and over the hill. This poem is hopefully a culmination of those feelings that I can pack up and toss aside as I start my vacation beginning at 5:00 PM today. I'll still be around, and  I'll see you for Denise Washington's feature this coming Wednesday. Thanks for reading. 

Exhibition Fight

You got too high

and tried to box God,

only flowers

in your corner 

to remind you of 

your to-be-hastened

impermanence. 

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 9-8-21: Bill Barnum's Prison Talk

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.

Meg Smith gave us a great feature on Wednesday. This summer was so rough, I forgot things like the second anniversary of Bill Barnum's death. It surprises me we haven't heard a Bill Barnum reference until Jan Rowe read an old Bill Barnum poem by James Van Looy. I just went from there.

My first Bill Barnum tribute poem was written days after his passing. He's due for another.

 

Disclaimer. Cats were referenced a bit during the open mic. I put that in this poem. I have no idea if Bil even liked cats, but he did write about them at least once. I also don't make any claims to Bill Barnum's philosophy. Instead, I take poetic license and create further apocrypha from Bill's larger-than-life persona.

 

That's all I have to say about this poem. Thanks for reading.

Bill Barnum's Prison Talk

While your self esteem 

cries Comfort me!

to your family,

Bill Barnum, 

behind bars, holds 

his high throughout,

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 8-25-21: Seasonal Draft

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.

It was an all open mic night this past Wednesday. A quieter end than I anticipated. It is what it is. 

The open mic is not to blame. They kept me going. Even if it wasn't a short open mic, 

I think this poem would be intentionally short. I have so much to do. Not enough nearly done. 

Appropriate that this is a spring poem, as any other season seems better than the one we're in now. Thanks for reading..

 

Seasonal Draft

Dog days refuse to turn names around

and chance much needed divinity.

Declarations that you live too ambitious.

Catch up on lost sleep from childhood. 

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 8-18-21: The Pale Gaze

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.

Stephanie Kaylor's feature feels too good, too sacred for me to pick apart into a poem. Almost like I'm mansplaining her poems, which I never want to do. This is not the first time I've felt like this about a feature. Especially one that so finely documents a life that I will in no way live. So I can't overstate enough that you should listen to Stephanie's feature, as this poem is a poor substitute. Most of them are, but that's okay as long as I admit it.

 

The open mic was on point and starting poet Jon Wesick helped provide bookends to the piece. Given Stephanie's openness, I felt it was only right to write this in first person, even though I'm not sure this is a "me" poem. 

So here it is. Stephanie never intended to give me a challenge, but I appreciate it nonetheless. Thanks for reading.

 

The Pale Gaze

 

Spent twenties in search of woman

who applied makeup like sparse mustard

rather than mayo slopped on pastrami.

 

My ship comes in under bridge, and 

I'm too afraid to jump for fear of 

finding my own lake of fire, 

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 8-11-21: Divine Vultures

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.

Thanks, John Stickney, for making it easy to host a feature from Parts Unknown. I'm heading out tomorrow back to Parts Known and want to get this poem up before I start packing. The feature was as fun to rewatch as my face was red. 

 

I'm not sure of the title, but I enjoyed the rest of the poem. John made that part fun. I'm taking time off, so I'll just lay out my psyche for another Friday. Thanks for reading.

 

Divine Vultures

Stalk the moon

before it stalks  you.

 

It's trying to prove 

you're not a commie

 

before you're hanged

by a capitalist cross.

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 8-4-21: To the Delta Boys

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.

Thank you for the feature, Gloria Mindock. I'll be buying your book before the weekend starts.

It was fun to move this poem from images of discarded masks from Patricia Carragon to neglected holy symbols with our feature. It's journeys from open mic to feature like this one that make writing these poems fun.

Talking about the pandemic and lost souls seem to go hand in hand. I decided to write about some of them this week. Thanks for reading.

To the Delta Boys

Let your masks 

join the ranks 

of bus stop trash.

Death will kindly 

make each stop 

to pick you up. 

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 7-21-21: They Suggest Meditation

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.

A short open mic begets a short poem. I needed a low stress night after all the work I did this week. We got James Van Looy back though his partner Jan took a breather. Probably too wiped out from all the tech work done to get their connection back. 

 

Given the politics on display this week, I'm surprised I didn't go darker. Thanks for reading.

They Suggest Meditation

Secret to freedom

not in YouTube speech

or prescriptions,

 

or waiting for death,

it's breath to snuff out

your giant bear heart,

SAFE DISTANCE EDITION - Stone Soup Croutons, 3-10-21: Who Mutes the Noisemakers?

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 an award nominated book out now collecting the best of my first year of poems. Click here to purchase it. 

Another all-open mic, but next week the features start again! I appreciate of the group that gathers no matter how little I offer or how late I post information.

Speaking of offering little? Here's the poem. Sorry. But this was written quickly this morning. If I had to guess the poem's meaning--and your guess is probably better than mine--I'd say it was influenced by my last couple of weeks on the job, coupled with the teachers (of which my girlfriend is one) returning to the classroom. At least that's what I figured before adding a title at the end. Thanks for reading.

Timothy Gager's reading was amazing. After him reading from his 2020 Poems collection, I don't need to hear about 2020 anymore. Pity we don't have a choice in that matter, with the one year anniversary of you-know-what this week. So here's my own version on looking back on that wonderful mindset that got us where we are today. That's what it kinda sorta started as. Not sure what it is now. Oh, well. Thanks for reading.

Who Mutes the Noisemakers?

Broken dreams boulevard

had street sign taken down.

Who does that? The system

has truly crashed. Hold on!

New day stopped download.

Please hold while we wait 

for the dog to move where

the spirit wags its tail.

Happy Birthday Jan Rowe

 

My Best 9 for 2019 on Instagram

It looks like I hold Jan Rowe and James Van Looy in even higher regard than last year! Or Instagram did, at least. See my Instagram for more photos, and thanks for the likes.