Happy Birthday, K. Peddlar Bridges

 

Happy Birthday, K. Peddlar Bridges

 

Happy Birthday, K. Peddlar Bridges

 

Happy Birthday, K. Peddlar Bridges

 

  

RIP Mick Cusimano

Mick Cusimano passed away last weekend, and the first thing I felt was regret.

Among my on-hold Stone Soup history projects, I wanted to reach out to recording artist Tracy Chapman. Why? Because of this written account from Mick on his website on the early days of Fire of Prometheus: 

Happy Belated Birthday, K. Peddlar Bridges

 

 

Stone Soup Croutons, 9-6-18, Life During War On Christmastime

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.

Last night, Stone Soup had its usual open mic, but no feature. K. Peddlar Bridges was supposed to show up but didn't. The man has never missed a reading before. Still, it was raining quite a bit yesterday, and he rides a motorcycle. I'm a bit worried.

I haven't heard from him yet. That's Probably the reason why the poem is not as mirthful as others have been (however darkly). Blame it on the return of Ed "Gentleman" Gault to the open mic with his poem about forced joy during the holidays. Got me started. So it's a poem about Christmas written in the month of September. Even if it isn't mirthful, it's still goofy. Thanks for reading. I'll put an update here if I hear from Peddlar.

Edit: I changed it from "Christmas Time to Christmastime." Should have checked the spelling of the Talking Heads song I'm riffing before I posted.

Further Edit:  Peddlar is okay. Found not long after posting this.



Life During War On Christmastime

Happiness is postponed
for a season, as no one can get it right.
as joyless as a one mic karaoke
of your local church's music.

It's Happening

K. Peddlar Bridges is performing for us tonight at Stone Soup Poetry. I'll see you there.

Pass This Around: K. Peddlar Bridges at Stone Soup Poetry

September 6: Stone Soup Welcomes Back Peddlar

Roadpoet K. Peddlar Bridges is finally returning to  Stone Soup for his first feature in three years. Since the last time we saw him, he's written a ton of stuff, including two books. I hope you bring some shekels to not only help us pay the poet but also maybe pick up one of his many tomes. Moving forward, I hope to have feature poets every month for the rest of the year. There will be more features announced soon.

An Amazing Gift

As the host and organizer for Stone Soup Poetry, I've been hosting events related to K. Peddlar Bridges since 2006. He has been a part of my Stone Soup summertime every year since. In 2008, he returned with a group that was then dubbed the Highway Poets to promote the Rubber Side Down anthology, which was edited by Susan Buck and our recently departed friend Joe Gouveia. On Monday, Peddlar presented me with a present before the feature started.

Peddlar said he picked up a copy in the library. The real surprise, however, was on the title page.

Susan Buck and Joe Gouveia's signatures! This was quite possibly a copy from the night they were at the Out of The Blue Gallery's old location. Maybe it was another night nearby. Still, what an amazing find. Thank you for sharing this with us, Peddlar. The book is near me now as I type this.

Let me throw in a little something extra since I'm posting this at the start of what my Facebook friends call Throwback Thursday. Below are two segments from that Rubber Side Down night seven years ago. I was just starting to record poets on the Stone Soup mic and edit videos on an obsolete version of Movie Maker when I recorded these spots. My equipment has slightly upgraded since then, but these videos of Susan and Joe remain favorites of mine.

Stone Soup Croutons, 7/27/15, Dust Sandwich

Stone Soup Croutons is a weekly poem I write using lines and impressions captured from poems overheard from Stone Soup's open mic readers and features. I started adding titles last week, but I can't seem to add one until the next day.

This Monday, we had K. Peddlar Bridges in the house celebrating the end of Roadpoet Fortnight, and he brought with him new biker poets who had not read at Stone Soup before. I was tired, but I got a lot out of everyone who read. Even after editing, it still feels like two or more poems meshed together, which is why my title is a little nonsensical.


Dust Sandwich

Hand to god
finger to lips
insanity is easier
observed trapped
in a glass bowl.

People come to watch,
not to visit.

Self-worship comes easy
to Narcissus.

Reminder: K. Peddlar Bridges Features at Stone Soup This Monday

Read his work in this week's Stone Soup Servings column in Oddball Magazine. Then be in the audience this Monday at 7:00 PM.

July 27: Return of the Highway Poet and Friends

It's July, and that means another motorcycle poet feature is upon us. That means it's the return of self-proclaimed Highway Poet K. Peddlar Bridges. The Peddlar has been a fixture in our summer schedule for a long time. His gatherings have come under different names in the past. For the past couple of years Peddlar and friends have assembled under the Roadpoet Fortnight which takes place these next two weeks as Peddlar and company perform all across New England. I don't know yet who else Peddlar will be bringing with him next Monday. Peddlar has always assemble a diverse bunch of readers, including new voices like Lisa Golda-Shields and established talents such as Gypsypashn, Marc D. Goldfinger and the late Joe Gouveia. I will add any additional names Peddlar announces, but no matter what he tells me between now and the day of the feature, I can tell you now that Peddlar heads up one of the most unpredictable shows in Stone Soup's history. This should not be missed.

Updating the Stone Soup Web Page

I haven't been good about updates for a while. I'm getting better.

More about this tomorrow (I hope).